Lib. 



Lights and Shadows of 
American Life 



Lights and Shadows 
of American Life 



BY THE 



Rev. a. C. DIXON, D.D. 

Author of " Heaven on Earth," etc. 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. 'Revell Company 

Publishers of»Evangelical Literature 



N^f-Tb, 



Copyright, 1898 

by 

Fleming H. Rkvell Company 




TWOCPPIFR RFnFIVFn- 







CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. Our Homes ii 

II. Our Bread Winners 25 

III. Our Money Makers 41 

IV. Our Boys and Girls 55 

V. Our Amusements ..... 69 

VI. Our Sabbath 85 

VII. Our Politics loi 

VIII. Our Cities 117 

IX. Our Bible 131 

X. Our Churches 145 

XI. Our Dangers 157 

XII. Our Women i6g 

XIII. Our Destiny 185 

7 



I 

OUR HOMES 



" Domestic happiness / thou only bliss 
Of Paradise that has survived the fall.'''' 

Cowper. 

" Ho7ne is the resort^ 
Of love, of Joy, of peace and plenty, where, 
Supporting and supported, polished friends 
A?id dear relations mingle into bliss ^ 

Thomson. 



OUR HOMES 

" Unto the upright there ariseth light 
in the darkness.^'' Psalm 112 : 4. 

The world owes to Christianity all that is 
meant by motherhood, fatherhood, brother- 
hood, sisterhood, and wifehood. Canon Far- 
rar says that in all the ancient classics there is 
no reference to the joys of childhood, and for 
the very good reason that the childhood of 
the ancients had little joy in it. The Roman's 
child was counted among his household goods. 
In Sparta the child was the property of the 
state rather than of the parents, and a father 
had as much right to correct the children of 
his neighbor as his own. Home life was noth- 
ing, and to-day in some languages there is little 
difference between the meaning of home and 
house. Wherever the Bible is honored, as in 
England, the real home exists, but where the 
Bible is not read, even in so-called Christian 
countries, as in France, there is little of home 
life. When, therefore, you hear an infidel 
speaking in praise of home and magnifying its 

II 



12 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

sweetness and joy, while he rejects the Bible, 
and refuses to honor Christ, write after his 
name in great black letters, the word IN- 
GRATE. 

In America, where there is such a mixture 
of all nationalities, we need not be surprised 
to find that the home life is esteemed by some, 
while it is held in contempt by others. The 
Englishman carries in his heart wherever he 
goes the sacredness of his home, while the 
Frenchman is apt to take with him nothing 
more sacred than a house. In our American 
life, however, the home is the foundation of 
the church and the state. As the homes are 
pure, the churches will be prosperous, and the 
state permanent. 

The fourth verse of the ii2th Psalm gives 
us the foundation principle of home happiness. 
" Unto the upright there ariseth light in the 
darkness." Everything depends upon upright- 
ness of purpose, thought, character, and that 
implies right relation between husband and 
wife, parent and child, brother and sister, 
master and servant. In proportion as this 
right relation exists, the home is full of light ; 
when wrong relation exists, it is certain to be 
full of darkness. 

A dark shadow in many American homes is 
the disobedience of children to parents. Some 
parents are bringing up their children in the 



Our Homes 13 

way they should not go. God commended 
Abraham because he taught his children obedi- 
ence, and if obedience is not taught in your 
home, you are training future anarchists and 
criminals. If the child does not obey the par- 
ent, he is not apt to obey God or the state. 
It is the duty of every parent to teach his 
children the relation between obedience and 
reward, disobedience and punishment. There 
is a sickly sentimentalism prevalent in some 
quarters which says that a child should never 
be punished. Paul asks the question, " What 
son is he whom the father chasteneth not ? " 
and he declares that such chastisement is the 
proof of true sonship, for " if ye be without 
chastisement, then are ye bastards and not 
sons." " Whom the Lord loveth he chas- 
teneth," and the father that does not lovingly 
chasten a child for disobedience is not a true 
father. Solomon spake truly when he said 
" he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but 
he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." 
I know that Solomon's advice is considered by 
some as out of date, old fogyish, but I am 
simple enough to believe that when he wrote 
those words he was inspired of God, and he 
spoke a principle that applies to all ages of 
the world. 

Someone asked a mother if she believed in 
the laying on of hands for the cure of diseases. 



14 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

She said she did, for she had effectually cured 
her boy of smoking cigarettes in that way. 
Whatever you may think of the laying on of 
hands as a religious ceremony, if you love 
your child you must not withhold the proper 
punishment for disobedience. Let it never be 
done in anger. If you are mad, cool off, 
take a shower-bath, sit down and think, wait 
till to-morrow, do anything rather than pro- 
voke a child to wrath by your own hot 
temper. 

Another shadow is discord between hus- 
band and wife. I have just noticed in the 
newspapers that a young man failed to appear 
when the hour of his marriage came, because 
his bride objected to his wearing russet shoes 
and a black tie. It was not said which one 
prevailed, though there were mutual explana- 
tions, and the marriage took place. I fear 
that the home will be full of shadows. Where 
tastes are different and each one asserts and 
magnifies the difference, there can be no har- 
mony, and where there is no harmony there 
is no happiness. 

That there may be harmony. Christian 
marriages should be in the Lord. " Be not 
unequally yoked together with unbelievers." 
A Christian should not marry an atheist or an 
infidel. This does not apply to non-church 
members, for there are many such in sympathy 



Our Homes 15 

with Christianity, and would like to be Chris- 
tians. But it does apply with tremendous em- 
phasis to those who are open opponents of 
Christianity like those around the church to 
which Paul was writing. At your peril marry 
one who does not hesitate to express his oppo- 
sition to the Christ you love. All honor to 
the Baltimore girl who, a few years ago, re- 
turned the engagement ring to her affianced as 
soon as she learned that he belonged to an in- 
fidel club. It brought him to his senses and 
led him to think seriously of a subject which 
he had flippantly despised, and the result was 
his conversion. 

It goes without saying that drink is the 
shadow in many a home, and it is a sad fact 
that social drinking customs are on the increase. 
We have spent so much time discussing the 
political phase of the drink traffic, and advocat- 
ing prohibition, that we have neglected, I fear, 
to train the young in the principles of total 
abstinence. The decanter and the demijohn 
are going again into the homes of not a few 
Christian people. I plead with you by the 
agonies of a drunkard's wife, and the disgrace 
of a drunkard's child, and the terrors of a 
drunkard's hell, to keep the accursed stufT out 
of your homes. 

Another shadow in some American homes 
is extravagance, living beyond one's income. 



i6 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

Receiving $5 a week and spending $6 means 
misery sooner or later. It means inability to 
pay debts, and the loss of manliness that 
follows. Receiving an income of five thou- 
sand dollars and spending five thousand and 
fifty will bring a shadow. Better a humble 
home in a cottage, or a garret, with bread and 
water paid for, than a palace splendidly fur- 
nished and supported by an outlay that fills 
your life with perplexity and burden. 

And that brings me to say that one of the 
common home shadows is everlasting worry. 
Stanley tells us that few of his men were killed 
by elephants and tigers. They suffered most 
from the " jiggers," little insects that it takes 
a microscope to sec. They get under the nails 
and the skin, producing irritation that fre- 
quently causes death. The " jiggers " of life 
worry many people into their graves. I read 
some time ago the experience of a hunter 
who shot a tiger, and thought he had killed 
him, but, on his approaching, the tiger sprang 
up and seizing the hunter by the knee, crushed 
the bone, and then fell back dead. The 
hunter found himself unable to walk, and his 
cries were not heard. After a few hours, how- 
ever, he forgot the tiger and even the broken 
bones in his terrific struggle with thousands 
of little ants. They covered him, and every 
nerve seemed to be bored with a hot awl. But 



Our Homes 17 

for timely rescue he had soon been killed by 
the ants. 

So it is in many human experiences. It is 
not the great tiger of calamity and grief that 
Idlls us, but the little ant worries of everj-day 
life. 

Let us now turn from the shadows to the 
light which, sooner or later, will make all 
shadows flee away. We might express almost 
everj-thing under this head in one word : 
"love." *' Husbands, love your wives even as 
Christ also loved the church and gave himself 
for it." ]\Iu5t I love my wife well enough to 
sacrifice myself for her as Christ sacrificed him- 
self on Calvary? That is it exactly. Listen 
again, " So ought men to love their wives as 
their own bodies." " He that loveth his wife 
loveth himself." We husbands are rather 
fond of ourselves. We are certain not to hurt 
ourselves, if we can help it. Not for the world 
would we neglect our own interest and pleasure. 
Let us be as careful for our wives, if, as hus- 
bands, we would be in the line of Apostolic 
succession. Not simply furnishing a home 
and supplying the table, but with continual 
thought and tenderness seeking the wife's 
highest good and greatest joy. 

Sir Walter Scott began his married life in a 
very humble cottage. With his own hands he 
made the dining-room table. Over the gate 



1 8 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

in front of the house he twisted the boughs of 
two willow trees; his wife and he came out in 
the moonlight and walked backward toward 
the house to observe the magnificence of their 
arched gateway. The splendor of Abbotsford 
did not attract him more than the sweet sim- 
plicity of this cottage in which love contrived 
and strove for mutual enjoyment. 

It is a love married to sympathy. We are 
told in an ancient legend that when Theseus 
was about to enter the labyrinth with drawn 
sword in hand to destroy the monster, his 
sister Ariadne tied around his ankle a silken 
thread, and told him that when he felt the 
gentle pulling of this thread he might know 
that she was thinking of him. In the struggle 
with the monster the gentle tug of the silken 
thread strengthened the hero's arm and helped 
to make him victorious. How beautifully this 
illustrates the sympathy between husband and 
wife. He goes out to struggle with the mon- 
sters of perplexity, it may be of misfortune. 
If he can feel the gentle pulling of the silken 
thread of sympathy at home it makes him 
brave and patient. 

And so the sympathy of the husband with 
the wife helps her to bear the burdens of the 
home. When Abraham Lincoln received the 
telegram announcing his nomination for the 
Presidency of the United States, he rose, put 



Our Homes 19 

on his hat and coat, and said to the friends, 
"There is a little woman at home who would 
like to hear this." And he went off to spend 
the evening with her. Dark days when death 
had entered their home came in after years, 
and it was this silken thread of sympathy be- 
tween them that helped them to bear what 
God's Providence had sent. 

Every man's life is more or less a projection 
of the home of his childhood into the future. 
What he was made at home he is apt to be 
ever afterward. If he was taught to steal and 
lie there, he will be a thief and a liar in life. 
If he was taught to be true and gentle and 
pure in the home, truth and gentleness and 
purity will follow him all his days. The Prin- 
cess of Wales, you know, is a native of Den- 
mark. She speaks several languages fluently, 
but she said to a friend, " I always think in 
Danish." The language of the home filled her 
thoughts and was a part of her mental structure. 

The home influence never utterly forsakes 
us, and many times moves us to noble en- 
deavor. A French soldier boy lay sick in the 
hospital at Geneva. The physician telegraphed 
to his father that he must hurry, if he would 
see his son alive. The old man came and 
found the boy very weak. " I have no ap- 
petite, father," he said, "what I eat I must 
force, and unless there is a change I cannot 



20 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

live long." The father took from his vah'se a 
bundle of brown bread which had been cooked 
by the boy's mother at home. The moment 
he saw it he said, " I think I could eat that." 
It was the thought of home that gave him 
appetite and brought him renewed vigor. As 
the bread made at home strengthened his body 
so the instruction and influence and prayers 
of a godly mother or father will strengthen the 
soul of the child in future years. He will love 
religion because it was honored at home. He 
will love purity because his mother was pure. 
He will love gentleness and harmony because 
they Avere together in the home of his child- 
hood. 

One word more. Homes on earth are easily 
broken up. Death enters and the home is 
sold, the family is scattered, misfortune passes 
it on to the hands of another. But there is a 
home before which the hearse never stops, and 
on the door of which the crape is never tied. 
Jesus calls it " Father's house." Some of our 
dear ones are there to-day, and their presence 
beckons us onward. As the Tyrolese fisher- 
men return from their day's work through the 
fog, their wives and daughters stand on the 
shore and sing their native songs. The husband 
or brother catches the strains of the music, and 
joining in it directs the prow of his little vessel 
toward home. Can we not hear through the 



Our Homes 21 

fog of time the music that floats to us through 
the open door of our Father's house in heaven ? 
It is the music of love and peace and joy. Shall 
we not join in it while we direct our course to- 
ward the eternal home. ? 



II 

OUR BREAD-WINNERS 



" Honest labor bears a lovely face?'* 

Dekker, 

" By the work one knows the workman V 

Fontaine. 



II 

OUR BREAD-WINNERS 

" The Lord hath called by name 
Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hiir, 
of the tribe of fudah ; and he hath 
filled him with the spirit of God, 
in wisdom, in understanding, and in 
knowledge, and in all manner of luork- 
manshipy Exodus jj" :jo, jr. 

There is a distinction, all too definite, be- 
tween manual workers and brain workers. The 
hand cannot do without the brain, nor the brain 
without the hand. The man who wins his 
bread by writing may work harder than the 
man who wins his bread by digging. The brain 
worker is apt to wear out his nerves, while 
the brawn worker will build up his muscles. 
Whether by hand or brain, or both, we should 
all be working people. " Six days shalt thou 
labor " is as binding as the command to rest 
on the Sabbath. The man who idles away the 
six days as really breaks the law as the man 
who works in his shop on the Sabbath. 

And all honest workers have their lights and 

25 



26 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

shadows. The first ray of light is the fact that 
work is a blessing. Even in a sinless Eden 
man was required to labor, and now that sin 
has entered with its train of sorrows, labor is 
all the more a necessity. The ground was cursed 
for man's sake. It is for his good that he must 
fight the battle against weeds and thorns. To 
be doomed to perpetual idleness would be 
a dire misfortune. In heaven they serve. In 
hell, so far as we know, there is no employment. 
The weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth 
mentioned in the Bible may be the result of 
the fact that they have time simply to think 
upon the mistakes and sins of the past. Cer- 
tain it is that honest labor does much toward 
turning earth into heaven. Pity the poor 
prisoners in the jail or the penitentiary who 
have not the blessing of work. Count Caylus, 
a noted French antiquary, though very wealthy, 
continued to labor industriously. When asked 
the reason, he replied : " I work, lest I may 
hang myself." 

An eminent preacher was told by his physi- 
cian that he must quit work if he would live. 
"How long can I live without work?" he 
asked. " Six or seven years, doubtless," was 
the reply. " How long can I live with work ? " 
he continued. " Not more than two or three 
years." "Well, then give me three years of 
work instead of six years of idleness." And 



Our Bread-Winners 27 

he was right. It is better to labor even one 
year than to spend a lifetime in doing nothing. 
If a man really delights in his employment 
daily toil carries with it its own reward. There 
is more in it than the money you make. Mr. 
Benjamin says, that while he was minister at 
Paris, he employed a frescoer to do some work 
in his home, and noticed that the man had 
really done much more than the contract called 
for. Mr. Benjamin expressed some surprise 
that he should work without pay. The reply 
of the frescoer ought to be written in gold, 
and hung up in the shop of every mechanic and 
artist. " I work not for money only," he said, 
"but because I love my vocation." 

It is said of Alexander the Great that when 
his army was on the march, he came upon a 
porter burdened with a pack of gold which he 
had taken from the back of a poor donkey that 
had sunk under its load. " Cheer up," said the 
General, " and walk faster, for when you reach 
the tent, the gold you carry shall be yours." 
So the burden of work which we do because 
we love it, and because we love others for whom 
we toil, becomes an enrichment which the idler 
never receives. 

And yet, if this be true, how can we explain 
the fact that some people have such a repug- 
nance to work. An old professor in college 
defined man as "an animal lazy as circum- 



28 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

stances will permit," and it must be confessed 
that in many cases the definition is true. Lazi- 
ness is composed of gravitation and inertia, the 
gravitation of sloth that pulls a man down, and 
the inertia of the love of ease which holds him. 
Call it play or amusement and he can exert 
himself to the utmost. Some of you young 
men who would think it a hardship to rise 
early in the morning, and make a fire for your 
mother, can ride fifty miles on a bicycle without 
feeling any evil effect, and some young women 
who think that their health would be ruined 
by pedaling a sewing machine, can turn the 
cranks of the bicycle half a day at a time and 
feel refreshed. 

I heard of a farmer who wished some stones 
moved from one place to another, and he 
offered a prize to the boy who would throw 
the most stones within a certain space. The 
boys enjoyed it until it was suggested that it 
was really not play, but work, and then they 
left in disgust. The thought that we are doing 
something useful ought to exhilarate us, and 
inspire us more than the consciousness that we 
are simply killing time. All time-killers ought 
to be arrested for murder. A change of work 
to the man who loves it is as refreshing as the 
change from work to play. And we need not 
be too careful to draw nice distinctions between 
the kinds of work which people do. If it be 



Our Bread-Winners 29 

honest and useful, it carries its own badge of 
honor. When the delegates from the Pope 
brought to Bonaventura, the general of the 
Franciscan order, his cardinal's hat they found 
him in the kitchen washing dishes. He came 
to the door and asked them to hang the hat 
on a bush until he got through with his dishes. 
He taught them that a man should have as 
much delight in humble work when in the line 
of duty as in wearing a Cardinal's hat. 

An Englishman asked President Lincoln 
what was his coat of arms. He replied, " A 
pair of shirt-sleeves." He was not ashamed of 
the fact that he had split rails for his bread, 
and with coat off had assisted father and 
mother in erecting their humble cottage in the 
forest. A pair of shirt sleeves worn by a work- 
ing man is a better coat of arms than a gold- 
headed cane, high collar and dainty cravat 
worn by that ambling thing called a dude, 
which it is difificult to distinguish from the 
missing link. 

A second ray of light in every working man's 
life is the fact that mechanical skill is honored 
of God. Bezaleel was called of Jehovah to his 
work in gold, and silver, and brass, cutting of 
stones, and carving of wood, just as much as 
Moses was called to the leadership of Israel, 
or Aaron to the priesthood. 

Great inventors are the prophets of nature. 



30 Lights and S"haJov£ of American Life 

They revesl to us the message of God as it 
is concealed in natnral la^vr. Their mechanical 
' ■ '- wt call machines, are 
£_ " • _ -• -angement of tie ^trvLr.ts 

of God for the doing of certain -vrori: 

The Bible piits special : '; ' - 

The only person in all hif.: : - - 1 

power to choose his own parentage selected 
the vife of a carpenter for his mother, and 
put himself in an humble social sphere, as the 
■world calls it, that he might thus be brought 
into intimate relation with the largest nur::ber 
of those whom he came to sai'e. He "vras hina- 
self a carpenter and doubtless worked to help 
support the large family of his struggling pa- 
rents. He called into his apost!'^- ' ■- "v.mble 
fishermen, and the most gifted : . ^wers 

was a maker of tent doth. Jesus brought a 

^- - ' -•---'-- working man's life by 

. -.al. ** What shall it 

profit a man./ He asked, ** if he gain the whole 

" - - - -. . jio^iv" Organization 

- - --.. whether of the state, 

society or church, may fall to pieces and be 
' ■ T- . . , _ . ' . _ -.j^ infinite 

■ . . . - -tal. The 

Roman Government went out of existence, 
but ei'eni' Roman lives to-day. When Jesus 
spoke for the worth of man, the state was 
everything, the individual nothing. And just 



Onr Bread- Winners 31 

here vre need to-day to hang out the red flag 
of danger. Tlie trend of the times is toward 
great organizations, and they may be a bless- 
ing to the working man or a curse. A blessing 
if they recognize the rights of the individual 
while they plead forthe good of the community ; 
a curse, if they !o5e sight of individual rights 
in tht '^"tr:-' : '. ..'.ake a great social machine. 

Lab;: : - existed in the time of 

Chr*5t. T._ ..^-..^miths had a separate 
r.r. ii"' :' - : ia Jerasalem. In the great s>'na- 
1- :• ; : . . .5 crafts had as- 

: - - - ' ' ^'-.t build- 

--. seated 
ted by his 
1 ;.:.:: ' — loy- 

::.zr.-.. ... , en- 

joyed the ; of organization, they did 

not enjoy ; ' " " jiom. We hail 

with ^Tst:": f political econ- 

cr:; - - : . y;! den indeed, 

1 - '. r.a.: they should 

1: , :. V ,-.':.. God -ordained 

as it isy has r ; .'.■': ". '. :'..'.".:. s. rr.an to 
j<Mn it. The :- spot in 

her history ▼. i church 

tried to compt The 

inqoisiticm wit her Lasting 

disgrace. At; ;'-' 5 --rcord 

^unst say ori -> it of 



32 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

capitah'st or laboring man, when it tries by 
threatened starvation to compel men to adopt 
its views and plans. 

We believe in organizations that are loyal 
to this government. A set of vipers among 
us, who have been warmed into life by our 
institutions, are trying to put their poisonous 
fangs into the vitals of their benefactor. The 
Apostle Peter gives us their portrait: "they walk 
after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and 
despise government." A good description of 
the anarchist. Peter tells us how they ought to 
be treated. " These, as natural brute beasts 
made to be taken and destroyed, . . . shall 
utterly perish in their own corruption." Not 
many of them are working people. Their 
ambition is to get rich through some revolu- 
tion without work. 

The laboring man, if he would fill his home 
with light, had better support the organi- 
zations which regard whisky and the liquor 
traffic as his worst enemy. We are not 
among those who think there is more liquor 
drunk by the laboring people than by the so- 
called higher classes. But it is evident that 
the grog shop is a greater enemy to the man 
of small means than it is to the man who is able 
to buy his liquid fire by the barrel and keep it 
in his home. In a recent investigation it was 
found that 42 per cent, of a certain number of 



Our Bread-Winners 33 

men out of work lost their jobs through drink, 
and every one of them represented a darkened 
home. 

A third ray of light in a working man's life 
is the fact that capital is always the friend of 
labor. Capitalists are not always the friends 
of laborers, any more than laborers are always 
the friends of capitalists. But though the 
capitalist may hate the laborer, his capital is, 
in spite of himself, more or less the laboring 
man's friend. A capitalist invests $100,000 in 
erecting a building from which he hopes to re- 
ceive 6 or 8 per cent, on his money, ninety per 
cent, goes directly into the pockets of working 
men who mold the brick, carve the stones, saw 
the wood, dig the foundation, paint and fresco. 
This capitalist may hate working people, but 
his capital is all the same their friend. Great 
railroad corporations are looked upon by some 
as the enemies of the working people, and yet 
wherever a railroad has gone through the 
country it has scattered money, and the work- 
ing man is benefited. The owners of the rail- 
road may hate him, but they cannot use their 
capital without employing him in some way. 
The loud-mouthed demagogues who are assert- 
ing that capital is the enemy of labor, and labor 
the enemy of capital, are the enemies of both 
labor and capital. Some men grow rich by 
rascality, and ought to be in the penitentiary, 
3 



54 Lights and Shadov^ of American Life 

while others grov- poor b}' rascality- and deserve 
the same fate. Though capitalists may op- 
press laborers, a.nd laborers may treat capital- 
ists unjustly, the proposition, I believe, remains 
uni\'ersalh- true that capital is the friend of 
labor and labor is the friend of capital. If 
this were understood, man^^ a shadow of mis- 
understanding would flee away. 

A fourth ray of light is the fact that the 
condition of the laboring man has greatly im- 
proved during the past centuries. In the time 
of Charles 11. the laborer received 12 cents a 
day for 14 hours" work. In the year 1349 under 
Edward 111. working men were impressed into 

- 'cd no pay. In : V - a 
- was erected fror. .0 

Land's End. and the laborers were required to 

own tools, without a ,-.f 

■). Some of them liters - cd 

to death. Such a thing to-day would bring 

"on. In the Mag-na Charta 

i- '^rons by King John, there was 

good prox-ision made for the clerg>% the land- 

but in Tjirler's His- 

- . ;^e part of the people 

who tilled the ground, who constituted in all 

of the nation, seemed 

•■ ..,....- --...v vonsidered in this great 

charter of freedom. They had but one single 
clause in their favor which stipulated that no 



Our l'.fnii(i-'//iafv^,r'i y-, 

villain or ruftf-ir. ikxr^XA by any [trrtf/-.^^ y,^. 4/t- 
^tfivf-A of hU chftii, hh {Ar,'*/-^ Mvd i 
(il hut:h»andry. In of.h^r i'<^!:p/:/'.^i 
considferfed as a part of th<e prop(»trt/ bfAf>tiqlt\^ 
to an estate, and w/er<^ f:r;! . t with ttue 

horsfts, cow/s, and oth^r m/. ; :.-... at th^ wiiV 
rA the ovvnurf. Even as Late a« the (/th rjtxi^ 
tury, Samuel Johnson l that " r^Uinq 

the wages of day labor-:. . . -. .ng, for it rir^es 
not make them live better, but only makf:^. 
them idler, and idleness i« a very ba/^i thini^ 
lor human nature." In the i/ith century fif- 
teen pounds ('l|75j a yrrar were the varze't of rt 
man with a family. 

The United Stat- : . 
working man. Wh<:n I 

that I could purchaiie three suit's of clnthf:^ 
lor little more than one «uit in 

this country, I yi':lded to the t . .at 

when I found that tailors who made my -suits 
were paid some of n" . yi 

cents a day, I felt at-..; . ...... ..... _-in. 

The sweat shops with their abominations remin/1 
you at least of the wages of regiilar workmen 
in the old country. More than half of the 
millions in savings banks in the United Staters 
has been deposited by the working people ; 
not a few of them have the luxury of organ.'j 
and pianos, dress their children as they send 
them to school in a style that doe.s not mark 



36 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

them as inferior to the children of the capitalist. 
Plenty to eat, plenty to wear, with civil and re- 
ligious liberty in which to enjoy it all. To be 
sure, the shadows have lifted from the lives of 
the laboring people in America. 

But there are shadows which come into the 
home of the working man which the blessing 
of work and the fact that his skill is the gift of 
God, that capital is the friend of labor, that his 
condition has greatly improved, does not ban- 
ish. His health fails, he loses employment, he 
works in search of work, and now he stands by 
the cot of a dying child or wife. He needs the 
sympathy of the Man of Sorrows, the touch of 
the Carpenter's hand, the voice that says 
" Come unto me, all ye that are weary and 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." No 
music of organ can charm away his grief. No 
thought of his bettered condition can sweeten 
his sorrow ; only Jesus Christ with his tender 
sympathy can be of real help to a man in con- 
ditions like these. 

When in Baltimore I was invited to call 
at the home of a working man whose phy- 
sician had given him up to die. As I en- 
tered the door, the expression of his counte- 
nance with its smile of peace was a glad wel- 
come. The busy wife, though subdued by 
grief, was restful in heart. There was an air 
of cleanliness and joy about the room which I 



Our Bread-Winners 37 

shall never forget. Reaching out his horny- 
hand and pressing mine he said : " The doctor 
told me the other day that there was no hope, 
but I said to him, Your no hope is the brightest 
hope you can bring me. I am going to be 
with Christ. I commit my family into the 
hands of a loving God, My little life insur- 
ance will help wife, and she will be able to take 
care of the children. To depart and be with 
Christ is far better than to stay here and suf- 
fer." I felt as I stood by the bedside of this 
son of toil, that I would rather have his hope, 
with all his struggles, than the millions of the 
Rothschilds with only this world as my por- 
tion. 



Ill 

OUR MONEY-xWAKERS 



" Thus, when ihe villain crams his chest, 
Gold is the canker of the breast ; 
^Tis avarice^ insolence, and pride, 
And every shocking vice beside ; — 
But, when to virtuous hands Uis given, 
It blesses like the dews of heaven ; 
Like heaven, it hears the orphans'' cries 
And wipes the tears from widows'* eyes^ 

Gay. 

" Abundance is a blessing to the wise, 
The use of riches in discretion lies ; 
Learn this, ye men of wealth, a heavy purse 
In a foors pocket is a heavy curse. ^^ 

Cu7nberland 's Menander. 



Ill 

OUR MONEY-MAKERS 

" Thou shalt remember the Lord 
thy God, for it is he that giveth thee 
power to get wealth J'' Deuteronomy 
8:i8. 

Wealth is a comparative term, A man worth 
ten thousand dollars, living in a humble village 
among poor people, may be considered im- 
mensely wealthy ; while a man living in New 
York must own a million or more to be labeled 
as wealthy by his neighbors. But wealth in a 
general way means money, or what may be 
turned into money, whether it be much or 
little. The makers of wealth may, therefore, 
be placed in two classes — capitalists and labor- 
ers. The laborer works directly for money, 
the capitalist makes money work for him. 

In some parts of Africa a man's wealth is 
estimated by the number of wives he owns, 
because the wife and the slave work for him, 
and increase his income. When he gets a little 
surplus, he simply buys another wife or slave. 
In America, instead of buying wives and slaves, 

41 



42 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

the capitalist buys a bond or a piece of prop- 
erty. The motive is the same. He wants that 
bond or piece of property to work for him by 
bringing in interest, while he is engaged about 
something else. 

The capitalist is a laborer, for it takes work 
to look after money as well as to make it, and 
the laborer is a capitalist to the extent of his 
savings. His mind, muscle, and nerve are also 
capital. Labor is capital and makes capital, 
while capital demands labor. 

Into the lives of all money-makers, whether 
they be rich or poor, there come lights and 
shadows. Let us look first at the lights. 

One of the brightest is the fact that the 
power to make money is the gift of God. '* It 
is he that giveth thee power to get wealth." 
There are men, like Agassiz, who have not time 
to make money, because their lives are taken 
up with other things. There are callings, like 
the ministry, in which it is not expected that 
money-making shall be the principal object, 
and when money making does become the ob- 
ject, the calling is debased. And yet the ability 
to make money is as sacred a gift as the ability 
to preach. If you have the money-making 
faculty, thank God for it, and lay it upon his 
altar. Stand erect among men devoted to a 
noble calling. Pity it is that men should ever 
regard their power to make money as peculiarly 



Our Money-Makers 43 

their own, and never think to thank God for it. 
It sometimes leads them to declare independ- 
ence of the Lord. They make money their 
god, while their souls become as yellow and 
hard as the gold they worship. 

Another ray of light is the comforts that 
money brings. It pays the rent, supplies the 
table, clothes the body, and educates the mind. 

But let it be remembered that the opportu- 
nity for self-denial may be a ray of light in the 
life of every money-maker. If we have not 
money, we must deny ourselves. There is little 
merit in that ; but, if we have money and choose 
to deny ourselves, in order that we may help 
others, there comes to us a joy inexpressible. 
Chaplain McCabe tells of a little church in a 
small village that was encumbered by debt. 
The membership was poor, but they determined, 
after much prayer, to make an effort to pay off 
the mortgage. James Gould rose in the meet- 
ing, and said that he and his wife had talked 
over the matter, and they had decided that the 
house of God must be free of debt, even if their 
own home had to be mortgaged. They had, 
therefore, raised a sum of money, which they 
wished to give to the church, by placing a mort- 
gage upon their home. The tears that Gould 
and his wife shed were not tears of regret. 
The light of joy sparkled through them. 
There was a strange thrill about their hearts. 



44 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

It was the joy of the Lord who sacrificed him- 
self for us. Other members of the church 
caught the spirit, and more than the amount 
needed was soon raised. 

Still another ray of light is the influence 
which the ability to make money always gives. 
Philip of Macedon said: "We seek empire by 
money, and not money by empire." He knew 
that money was power, and the ability to make 
money carries with it influence. It implies in- 
dustry, economy, patience, perseverance, and 
many sturdy qualities that make true man- 
hood. The possession of money is not proof 
that a man is good or great. It may be an 
index to his rascality. Neither is the possession 
of poverty proof that a man is good or great. 
It may be the index to his laziness or dishon- 
esty, by which he has lost reputation and credit. 
But the ability to make money honestly gives 
one a standing which he may use for the glory 
of God. 

The brightest ray of light is the pleasure of 
doing good. Paul wrote to Timothy : " Charge 
them that are rich in this world that they be 
not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, 
but in the living God, who giveth us richly all 
things to enjoy; that they do good, that they 
be rich in good works." The rich man is here 
permitted to enjoy all the things with which 
God has blessed him, but while he enjoys them 



Our Money-Makers 45 

let him not forget that they give him the op- 
portunity and ability of doing good, and thus 
becoming rich in a wealth that will last when 
gold and silver have ceased to be coin current. 
There is a blessedness in the act of giving, for 
Jesus said, " It is more blessed to give than to 
receive." Giving cleanses. " Give alms," said 
Jesus, " of such things as ye have, and behold, 
all things are clean unto you." About the 
foulest thing on earth is the money of a man 
who has not given a portion of it to doing 
good. 

All money-makers should give at least one- 
tenth of their income to God. If you do so, 
you are a first-class Jew ; and no Christian, in 
the matter of giving, should ever fall short of 
the Jewish standard. But you who have 
money invested, drawing interest, should " Re- 
member the Sabbath day to keep it holy." 
Your invested money works on the Sabbath 
day. It draws as much interest on the seventh 
day as the first, so that in addition to the one- 
tenth of the six days' income, ought you not 
to give one-seventh of the interest which has 
accumulated upon God's days? 

But money-making has its shadows, and one 
of the darkest shadows is cast by a bad busi- 
ness. If your business is hurtful to your 
neighbor, debauching him in body and mind, 
you cannot think of it with pleasure. A poor 



46 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

drunkard fell into the gutter in front of a 
saloon, and a mischievous boy pinned a placard 
upon his coat written in large letters, " Speci- 
men of the work done inside." When the 
saloon-keeper came out and saw it, he fumed 
with rage, tore the placard to pieces, and swore 
at the boy. His rage was produced by the 
consciousness that he was doing wrong ; his 
swearing was simply the vent of an unhappy 
spirit. When the rich brewer sees the rags 
and wretchedness caused by drink, he cannot 
enjoy his wealth, if his conscience has not been 
seared with a hot iron. He must hear in his 
dreams and waking visions the wail of the 
orphan, the moan of the widow, the shrieks of 
the maniac, the groan of the broken-hearted, 
caused by the curse of drink out of which he 
has made his money. 

Fred Charrington, who is now at the head 
of one of the greatest missionary works in 
London, was at one time a clerk in his father's 
brewery. Through the testimony of an 
American preacher, talking to him in the com- 
partment of a railway coach, young Charring- 
ton accepted Christ, and consecrated his life 
to his service. He began at once to do phil- 
anthropic work among the poor, opening night 
schools, and teaching the ragged children the 
way of life and virtue. He soon found that 
the greatest obstacle in the way of the progress 



Our Money-Makers 47 

of his philanthropic work was the public 
houses, most of which had his father's name 
upon the signs. He said to himself, " I must 
quit either the business of making drunkards 
or curing drunkards. I work at night to cure 
drunkards and during the day to make drunk- 
ards." God gave him the victory, and he 
decided to leave the brewery business and 
keep on in the work of saving men. His 
father, in a fit of rage and disappointment, 
disinherited him, but before his death he re- 
lented, and gave to the son the money which 
he has been using for the glory of Christ and 
the uplifting of East London. The light of 
his new career and character is driving away 
the shadows of former days. 

The saloon is the upas shade of the world. 
It poisons, withers, and damns the man who 
sells as well as the man who drinks, and it 
is a sad fact that the liquor business is being 
attached to some of our large dry goods 
stores. It is easy now even for women and 
children to have the fire of death sent to their 
homes, with bundles of dress goods or toys. 
No respectable man or woman should even 
buy a spool of thread from such a store. 

Again: If your money is made by dishonest 
methods. It will cast a shadow upon your life. 
Legitimate business may be debauched by 
illegitimate methods of making money. 



48 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

Young Adam Clarke was told by his employer 
that he must stretch the cloth in order to make 
the required number of yards, but Adam's 
conscience was not so elastic as the cloth he 
refused to stretch, and he frankly told his em- 
ployer that he would leave the store rather 
than be guilty of a dishonest trick. The em- 
ployer allowed him to leave, and as a result we 
have Adam Clarke the Commentator blessing 
the world by means of his character and writ- 
ings. If he had consented to stretch that 
cloth, he would doubtless have lived and died 
an unknown, unhappy wretch, making money 
in dishonest ways, if not serving his time in 
the penitentiary. 

Money-making with a low motive will also 
cast a shadow. What object have you in view ? 
Has your ability to make money been pros- 
tituted simply to money-making? Is it now 
a great greasy game with you ? Has it be- 
come play, or war? Do you wish to make 
money just as a football team wishes to win 
by gaining a higher score ? Are you simply 
ambitious to excel, and to have it said that 
you own more money than others ? If so, John 
Ruskin draws your picture in the following 
words: "The first of all English games is 
making money. That is an all-absorbing game, 
and we knock each other down oftener in 
playing at that than at football, or any rougher 



Our Money-Makers 49 

sport, and it is absolutely without purpose. 
No one who engages heartily in that game ever 
knows why. Ask a great money-maker what 
he intends to do with his money, he never 
knows. He does not make it to do anything 
with it ; he gets it only that he may get it. 
What will you make of what you have got ? 
you ask. Well, I will get more, he says. 
Just as at cricket you get more runs. There is 
no use in the runs, but to get more of them 
than other people is the game, and there is no 
use in the money but to have more of it than 
other people in the game. So all that great 
vile city of London there, rattling, growling, 
smoking, stinking, a ghastly heap of ferment- 
ing brickwork pouring out poison at every 
pore. You fancy it is a city of work. Not a 
street of it. It is a great city of play, very 
nasty play, and very hard play, but still play. 
It is only Lord's cricket ground without the 
turf, a huge billiard table without the cloth, 
and with pockets as deep as the bottomless 
pit, but mainly a billiard table after all." 

Making money, just for the sake of making 
money, is not apt to make manhood. I have 
heard of a Scotcli Laird who made his servant 
pay him a shilling an hour for working in his 
own garden, that he might enjoy with the re- 
creation the intense pleasure of accumulating. 
A Mr. Taylor, of London, who had amassed a 
4 



50 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

fortune, decided while on his death-bed that he 
would give a thousand pounds to some benevo- 
lent object. While the committee were draw- 
ing the papers, the dying man said : " Gentle- 
men, will you not allow me ten per cent, for 
cash payment?" They of course agreed, and 
the miser died, pleased with the thought that 
he had made one hundred pounds by a sharp 
bargain. You may not be as mean as old 
Ostewalde, the Parisian banker, who refused to 
order beef for his broth while he was dying, 
because he could not think of what he would 
do with the beef after he had drunk the broth. 
You may not be as mean as a man I knew, who 
refused to get up on a Sunday morning and go 
with his wife to church, unless she would pay 
him regularly ten cents for the effort, acknowl- 
edging to a friend that he had been so accus- 
tomed to act with a view to making money that 
he had become incapable of action without it. 
These may be extreme cases of littleness and 
meanness ; but making money for the sake of 
making money is apt to result sooner or later 
in a character exceptionally mean. The in- 
spired record, in this as in all other things, is 
true : " The love of money is the root of all evil, 
which while some coveted after, they have 
erred from the faith, and pierced themselves 
through with many sorrows." Money itself is 
not evil ; the love of it always is, and every 



Our Money Makers 51 

man who has money is either master or slave. 
If his money owns him, he is a slave. If he 
owns and uses his money, he is a master. If 
his money owns him, he will do the bidding of 
money without regard to truth, and the result 
will be that he is pierced through with many 
sorrows. His whole life becomes one shadow 
of evil. He gropes and clutches and creeps 
and crawls in dust and darkness, but never 
soars. His money is a weight that drags him 
down, never a wing that lifts him up. " A 
man's life consisteth not in the abundance of 
the things which he possesseth." An over- 
estimate of money, or an over-confidence in 
money casts gloomy shadows. 

I would like to give to every money-maker 
the secret by which he may flood time and 
eternity with light. It does not depend upon 
the amount that you make or possess. It will 
hold in hard times or good, whether the gold or 
silver standard prevails. It is never affected 
by political, social, or commercial revolutions. 
In the midst of turmoil and confusion it gives 
peace. In work it gives rest. In perplexity 
it gives confidence. In despair it gives hope. 
We owe the secret to the Lord Jesus him- 
self when he said : " Lay up for yourselves 
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
break through nor steal." How stands your 



52 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

bank account in heaven ? Are you transmut- 
ing the seen and the temporal into the unseen 
and eternal, by using your money in making 
character which will last through eternity ? 
Money here makes for itself wings and flies 
away. It has no wings in heaven. 



IV 

OUR BOYS AND GIRLS 



** Suffer these little ones to come unto me" 
Was the commafid of Him who, on the cross, 
Bo7ved his anointed head and with his blood 
Purchased redemption for our fallen race — 
And blessed they who to that holy task 
Devote the energies of their young years, 
Teaching, with pious care, the dawning light 
Of infa7it intellect to know the Lord. 

Huntingdon. 



IV 
OUR BOYS AND GIRLS 

" Take this child away, and nurse 
it for me, and I will give thee thy 
wages y Exodus 2 : g. 

" A?id the streets of the city shall 
be full of boys and girls playing in 
the streets thereof J'^ Zechariah 8 : J. 

" IVist ye not that I must be 
about my Father'' s business 1 " Luke 
2:49. 

" And the Syria?is had gone out 
in bands, and had brought away 
captive out of the land of Israel a 
little maid; and she waited Ofi 
Naamaiis wife. And she said unto 
her mistress, Would God my Lord 
were with the prophet that is in 
Samaria ! then tvould he recover 
him of his leprosy,'''' 2 Ki?igs 

" The children [that were"] cryifig 
in the temple, and saying, Hosanna 
to the son of Davids Matthew 
21 : IS. 

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, in a Western min- 
ing camp, a crowd of rough men had assembled 

55 



$6 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

to listen to music and speaking. While the 
band was playing, a baby in the audience, the 
only one in the whole camp, began to cry. A 
tall miner arose, and with stentorian voice said, 
" Stop that noisy band and give the baby a 
chance." The music ceased, and the rough 
men wiped the tears from their eyes as they 
listened to the baby's crying. It brought to 
them the hallowed associations of the home in 
the East. They were children again. 

My first message in this chapter is to parents. 
" Take this child away, and nurse it for me, 
and I will give thee thy wages." Give the 
children a chance. They have a right to be 
welcomed into the world, and to find a place 
where they can feel at home. Children are 
the music and poetry of family life. The 
Bible speaks of them as olive plants around 
the table. The man who is blessed with many 
children is compared to the hunter with strong 
bow and quiver full of arrows. He is ready 
for any emergency, and has a resource of 
strength upon which he can rely. A wealthy 
man said to a poor friend, as he looked upon 
his house full of children : " These are the 
things that make rich men poor." " Nay, 
verily," replied his friend, " these are the things 
that make poor men rich, and not one of them 
would I give for all the millions of earth." 

Yet it is possible to make boys and girls 



Our Boys and Girls 57 

feel that they are nuisances, encumbrances, 
drawbacks, weights instead of wings. A little 
boy when he was dying, was told by the minis- 
ter that he was going to heaven. His last 
prayer was, " Lord, make room for a little fel- 
low." He seemed to feel that there was no 
room on earth for him, and he was glad that 
he was going to a place where there might be 
room enough. 

And parents need not be discouraged when 
their children seem to be unpromising. When 
Dr. Todd was an infant it was said, even by 
his mother, that she thought it would be a 
mercy if the little sickly thing were taken from 
the world, much as she would miss it. But 
Dr. Todd grew up to write the " Student's 
Manual " and to make an impress on the world 
for good. Sir Walter Scott as a boy was dull, 
but the dullard of the school-house became the 
wizard of literature, OHver Goldsmith was so 
stupid that his teacher declared that he would 
never amount to anything, and though Oliver 
never learned to talk much better than poor 
Poll, he did write like an angel. Clarke, the 
commentator, was known when a boy as 
" Adam, the dunce," and Sir Isaac Newton, 
who became the most famous mathematician 
of his age, seemed in childhood to have a skull 
so thick that the teacher could not pound into 
him the multiplication table. Dulness in cer- 



58 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

tain things does not indicate weakness of mind. 
A critical remark may stir latent powers into 
action. 

Paul Ritter wrote " I love God and flowers 
and little children," and they have something 
in common. God is great and strong, flowers 
are little and weak ; children are like flowers 
in their weakness, but they have in them the 
possibilities of strength which in maturity will 
at least remind us of God. 

Give the child a chance by protecting it 
from the influences that will mar while its 
nature is plastic. 

A traveler says that while he was in South 
America he noticed a bird fluttering about its 
nest, flying out and coming back with a leaf in 
its mouth, which it dropped among its young. 
He soon saw the cause of the disturbance, for 
a large snake had wound its body around the 
tree and was climbing for a meal. The mo- 
ment its head reached the nest it relaxed its 
hold and fell with a thud upon the earth. The 
instinct of the bird had taught it that the 
leaves were poisonous to the snake, and it had 
protected its young by filling the nest with 
these leaves. How careful should we be to 
throw about little children those influences 
that will protect from the serpents of evil that 
would destroy. 

The habits of childhood are apt to be the 



Our Boys and Girls 59 

habits of mature age. " Do you do any lit- 
erary work ? " asked a neighbor of a mother. 
" Yes," she replied, " I am writing two books." 
" What are their titles ? " '' 'John' and 'Mary'," 
she answered. " My business is to write upon 
the minds and hearts of my children the les- 
sons that they will never forget." And this 
should be done at any sacrifice. No pleasure- 
seeking or money-making should hinder us 
from writing the truth upon the souls of our 
children. The testing time comes to many a 
father and mother, " Shall I turn my child 
over to another, or shall I sacrifice my pleasure 
or even my business for its training." It is 
said that a ship coming from San Francisco to 
the East took fire, and a strong man had just 
buckled around his waist his heavy belt of gold, 
when a little girl came up and with a tear in 
her eye said : " Can you swim ? " " Oh, yes, I 
can swim," " Will you not save me from 
drowning ? " It was a question with him as 
to whether he would save the gold or the child. 
It did not take him long to decide ; he flung 
aside his belt, took the child upon his shoulder, 
and swam to the shore. Whether this incident 
be true or not, it illustrates the crisis in the 
life of many a child. It is simply a question 
with the parents as to whether pleasure or 
gold shall be saved, or the child. If we decide 
for the child we are apt to fill the future with 



6o Lights and Shadows of American Life 

light. If we decide for pleasure or gold we 
may fill it with shadows. 

My second message is to the boys and girls 
who are lights or shadows in our American 
life. We might widen the field and make it 
take in the whole Avorld, for childhood is about 
the same everywhere. Children cry and laugh 
in Chinese about as they do in English. 
Their child nature, with its joys and sorrows, 
is about the same until it has been marred by 
the forces of evil. The fifth verse of the 
eighth chapter of Zechariah gives us the right 
of every boy and girl in the world. It is the 
right to play. It describes the condition of 
Jerusalem during the millennium, when there 
will be no sin, no bad neighbors to protect 
children from, no bad language befouling the 
air, no evil habits that can be learned on the 
streets. The streets are full of boys and girls 
at play. Our parks and playgrounds hedged 
about by good influences are a section of the 
millennium pushed forward. Let the happy 
shout fill the air, let the vigorous body work 
off its abundant life by running and leaping 
and vaulting. The more noise in the open air 
the better. If we had enough to drown the 
rattle of the trolley, and the shriek of the engine, 
our nerves would not be so severely tested. 
" Keep quiet, and do not make so much noise," 
said a petulant mother to her boisterous son. 



Our Boys and Girls 6i 

" Mamma, were you ever a boy ? " he innocently 
asked. The life of playful childhood may be 
out of our stiff joints and aching limbs, but it 
should never be out of our hearts. Let the 
children fill the world with the light of happy 
play. 

It is certain that these playful boys and 
girls on the streets of the New Jerusalem are 
clean. I do not refer to their clothing, or their 
faces and hands, I have great sympathy for 
the child that has to sit up in clean clothes, 
not permitted to roll in the sand and romp in 
the dust. The business of its little life is to 
keep tidy. As well be in jail. But I do refer 
to clean language, and clean habits. Can you 
think of one of these boys playing on the 
streets of heaven as smoking a cigarette, or 
squirting tobacco juice, defiling the body with 
the poison of nicotine ? Nor can you imagine 
one swearing, or lying, or uttering vulgarity ? 
Clean lips because beneath them are clean 
hearts. 

The boys and girls on the streets of the 
New Jerusalem must be gentle. You cannot 
think of them as cruel or unkind. They con- 
trol their tempers. They never quarrel. They 
do not take pleasure in hurting animals, for 
the boy who would kill flies for a pastime 
would kill men, if he had the power. We are 
anxious that our boys should be gentlemen 



62 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

and our girls ladies; it is more important that 
the boys should first become men and the girls 
women. Robert Burdette says truly that he 
could not imagine the angel as saying, " Ye 
gentlemen of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up 
into heaven? " Our attempts to make gentle- 
men out of boys may result in making them 
dudes, and that is about as near nothing as we 
could make. And the attempt to make ladies 
out of our girls may result in making them 
butterflies of fashion. 

Luke 2 : 49 gives us a portrait of the useful 
child. Jesus lived in his home at Nazareth 
helping his father and mother in their work. 
He was known as he grew up to be a carpenter. 
You cannot think of him as loafing and idling 
away his time. He was doubtless the first in 
play, the happiest of the happy. He was also 
industrious and useful. Sometimes the boy is 
called upon to help support his mother, and 
though it is bad for him to leave school, in 
this new responsibility he secures an education 
of great value. A newsboy in New York was 
run over by a dray, and as they were taking 
him to the hospital he handed a few cents to 
the officer, saying: "Take that to mother, it is 
all I have made this morning." His thought 
was to help the one he loved. Mr. Miller, in 
his little book entitled, "Faults and Ideals of 
Girls," tells of a girl who, after she had gone 



Our Boys and Girls 63 

through school and acquired a good education, 
returned to her home duties in the nursery and 
kitchen to lighten the burdens of mother who 
had sacrificed so much for her. Every child 
can be more or less useful in the home even 
when there is no need of an income from child 
labor for support. 

At twelve years of age Jesus is about his 
Father's business. Every boy and girl have 
capital which is of more value than money ; 
years before them that they can invest for God. 
While a Christian man in Connecticut was dy- 
ing, he groaned out " Lost, lost ! " The pastor, 
who was at his bedside, said in surprise, " I 
thought you said you were saved." " Yes," he 
replied, " my soul is saved, but fifty years of 
life are lost." He might have been useful 
during that long time, but now the opportunity 
is lost forever. In order to invest one's whole 
life in doing good, we must begin in child- 
hood, and a useful childhood is light without a 
shadow. 

2 Kings 5 : 2-3 gives us the picture of a 
brave child. She had been captured by the 
Syrian army and taken away from home. The 
husband of her mistress was a leper, and though 
she lived among a people who despised the God 
and the prophets of Israel, she was bold enough 
to say, " If my master were in Samaria, the 
prophet could cure him of his leprosy." The 



64 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

fact that these great people listened to this 
slave girl shows that she had a good character. 
She was truthful. They believed in her, and 
she was brave enough to confess in the midst 
of enemies that she believed in Jehovah. 

There have been heroic martyrs among chil- 
dren. In the year 304, during the reign of the 
Pro-Consul Aulius of Carthage, three children, 
two boys, Felix and Hilarion, and one girl, 
Victoria, were martyred for their faith in Christ. 
We read of Bassa, the Christian mother of 
Edessa, whose husband thought he could 
frighten his three sons into giving up their 
mother's religion, but to his consternation he 
found that they were brave enough to confess 
Christ before the executioners, and suffer death 
rather than deny their mother's Saviour. 

This little Israelitish maid reminds us of 
Daniel in a foreign court, who refused to drink 
the king's wine and eat his rich food, and as 
a result of his faithfulness became the Prime 
Minister of the empire. When we think of 
brave children, of course the ruddy-faced David 
occurs to us. The boy, who, though not used 
to battle, but who spent his time practicing 
with sling and stone in the open air, was brave 
enough to meet the giant Goliath, and in the 
strength of God slew him. And every boy can 
be a giant-killer. I wish that we might have 
an order of giant-killers, boys who refuse to do 



Our Boys and Girls 65 

wrong and who conquer evil habit, because 
they believe in God and righteousness. 

This little maid was a truly beautiful girl. I 
do not know what her features were, whether' 
her hair was dark or light, her eyes blue or 
gray ; but there is a beauty which cannot be seen 
as you stand before the mirror : it is a beauty 
of soul. 

She was unselfish and magnanimous. She 
might have said, " Let old Naaman perish in 
his leprosy : he had no business to take me 
away from my father's house. It is good for 
him." Instead of that she was anxious to do 
him good. Unselfishness is beauty ; selfishness 
is ugliness. 

Matthew 21:15 gives us a picture of religious 
boys and girls. The old people in the temple 
did not like the children's noise as they praised 
Jesus, but Jesus took their part then as he does 
now. Every child has a right to be religious, 
and the happy religion of children fills the com- 
munity in which they live with light. Joseph 
was religious. His dreams were his Bible, God 
speaking to him. We have a better Bible than 
Joseph had, and ought therefore to be more re- 
ligious. Samuel, trained by his mother, lived 
in the temple all the time serving God, and be- 
came the greatest prophet of Israel. Our re- 
ligion should make us play better. It was said 
of a certain boy, " He plays like a Christian," 
5 



66 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

and that was a good compliment. Our religion, 
through the blood of Christ, will make us clean 
and keep us clean in our language and habits. 
It will make us gentle and brave, and useful 
and beautiful. Without religion a boy or a girl 
is only half-formed, and that means deformed. 
Jesus said, " Suffer little children to come unto 
me and forbid them not." Every boy and girl 
in the world has a right to come to Christ on 
that invitation, and, when they have done so, 
to help fill the world with light and gladness. 



V 

OUR AMUSEMENTS 



" Pleasures, or wrong or rightly understood^ 
Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.^'' 

Pope. 



V 

OUR AMUSEMENTS 

" If therefore the light that ts in 
thee be darkness, how great is that 
darkness / " Matthew 6 : 2j. 

One of the most joyful facts in all the Bible 
is that God can make light shine out of dark- 
ness, that Christ transmutes sorrow into joy. 
And one of the saddest facts is that expressed by 
the Scripture, that light may become darkness, 
and, when it does, the darkness is very great. 

Laughter is light. It cheers the heart, re- 
freshes the mind, and gives health to the body. 
I thank God that I am a laughing animal. But 
the light of laughter, under certain conditions, 
may become darkness. It is a trick of the 
devil to sugar-coat the poison of sin with fun 
and frolic. We need, therefore, to be as care- 
ful about our amusements as about our duties. 
Laughter is, indeed, an index to character. 
Tell me what a man laughs at, and I will tell 
you what he is. If he laughs at purity, he is 
impure. If he laughs at virtue, he is vicious. 

If he laughs at goodness, he is bad. 

69 



70 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

The things that amuse the people do much 
toward molding their character for good or 
evil. The theater, the card-table, and the 
dance are national and international in their 
influence, and it is our purpose to discuss each 
one of these in the light of Scripture, common 
sense, and fact. Being most popular they com- 
prise to a large extent the Lights and Shadows 
of Amusement in our American Life. 

I invite your attention to seven facts which 
will test the character of these amusements, 
and all others. 

L Amusements cast a shadow when they 
injure the body. This body of ours is God's 
temple and should be sacredly preserved. 
Whatever weakens, cripples, or pollutes it 
should be avoided. Excess in any amusement 
gives physical injury. The bicycle is the best 
instrument of recreation in the world, and yet 
there are not a few invalids to-day, the result 
of excessive wheeling. A glance into a ball- 
room often shows that the dressing is white 
and light and slight and tight. Every law of 
health is disregarded. Going from the heated 
room into the cold atmosphere has made many 
physical wrecks. The ball-room is the mother 
of consumption and rheumatism. Football 
has well-nigh ceased to be a game. It is a 
rough struggle for life. A broken arm, or leg, 
or nose is a mere incident. It should be ended 



Our Amusements 71 

or mended. The Georgia Legislature did right 
in passing a law forbidding the brutal sport in 
the state until it is reformed. In its rough 
coarse brutality it seems to be a game fit only 
for Comanche Indians. 

II. Amusements cast a shadow when they 
injure the mind. The theater has the advan- 
tage of dancing and card-playing as a mental 
exercise. Cards were invented for the enter- 
tainment of an idiotic king, and it does not 
take much brains to amuse oneself with cards. 
" It is very wonderful," says Addison, "to see 
persons of the best sense passing away a dozen 
hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack 
of cards, with no other conversation but what 
is made up of a few game phrases, and no other 
ideas but those of black or red spots arranged 
together in different figures. Would not a 
man laugh to hear any one of his species com- 
plaining that life is short ? " Has a man or a 
woman a right to waste time in such a childish 
way ? The young man who has worked hard 
all day in the store or shop, might spend his 
evening reading a book that would give him 
entertainment as well as knowledge, but instead 
of that he sits down to a game of cards, and 
wastes the evening. This repeated year after 
year leaves him little wiser than when he began. 
Neither does dancing call into exercise the 
mental qualities. A dog, a cat, a monkey, or 



72 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

a horse can be taught to dance. Pliny tells us 
that in his day elephants were good dancers. 
Whatever leaves us no time for mental im- 
provement casts the shadow of ignorance upon 
our lives. It is said that thirty million packs 
of playing cards are manufactured every year 
in America, and they are sold by book stores, 
grocery stores, saloons, and almost every busi- 
ness. These thirty million packs of cards are 
an index to a desert waste of precious time, 
which greatly retards the mental advancement 
of the young. 

in. Amusements cast a shadow when they 
injure the morals. It ought to go without 
saying that round dancing is immoral in its 
tendency. I do not say that all who dance the 
round dance are immoral, but I do say that, 
if they retain their moral purity, it is in spite 
of the dance, and not by means of it. It had 
its origin in the low dance houses of Paris, and 
ought to be sent back to its own place. Sev- 
eral years ago a police commissioner of New 
York made a report, in which he gave it as his 
opinion that three-fourths of the lost characters 
in this great city could trace their fall to danc- 
ing. The theater gives a few moral plays, and, 
when such a play is before the footlights, all 
the preachers in the community will receive 
free tickets. Then, for the next two months, 
look out for vileness on the bulletin boards ! 



Our Amusements 73 

Dr. Buckley took the pains to examine about 
200 plays that had been produced in the thea- 
ters of New York, and it was a very small per 
cent, of them that a decent man would be will- 
ing to have read in his parlor. Most of them 
were full of spectacular obscenity, and the dis- 
play of woman's shame. A friend urged an- 
other to go with him to a certain popular play. 
He agreed on condition that they should both 
leave as soon as something should be said or 
done that they would not like their sisters to 
hear or see. They remained not more than 
ten minutes until they felt that, according to 
their agreement, they must get up and go out. 
When cards are used for gambling in any 
form, card-playing casts a shadow of dishonesty. 
Gambling is an attempt to get something for 
nothing, and bears the relation to burglary or 
theft that dueling bears to murder. A man 
meets another on the highway, and shoots him 
down. That is murder. Two men agree to 
go out early in the morning, and shoot at each 
other until one is killed. That is murder. 
The difference is that in the first case there is 
one murderer, in the second case there are two. 
A highwayman meets you on the street, and 
compels you to surrender your purse. He 
wants something for nothing, and that is rob- 
bery. Two men sit by a table, and mutually 
agree by the shuffling of cards, to get something 



74 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

for nothing. That is robbery. The difference 
is, in the first case there is one robber, in the 
second case there are two, and the fact that 
they agreed to rob each other does not change 
the moral quality of the act. Respectable 
people meet in a parlor for the shuffling and 
playing of cards during the evening. A prize 
is offered to the one who has the best luck, 
another prize to the one who has the worst 
luck. The excitement becomes intense, be- 
cause there is a desire to win, and to get some- 
thing for nothing. There still remains the 
moral quality of robbery. A mother in Boston 
remonstrated with her wayward son for gam- 
bling. He replied, " Mother, where did you 
get that vase in the parlor? " " I won it at a 
game of progressive euchre." " Then please 
do not ask me to quit gambling while you in- 
dulge in the same thing." Anthony Comstock 
asserts that many of the black-leg gamblers of 
New York belong to the first families, and were 
taught to gamble by their mothers and sisters 
at home. As you prize chastity, shun the 
round dance, as you prize honesty, shun gam- 
bling, whether in the parlor of respectability, or 
in the low dive of the city, and as you prize a 
clean mind and a pure character, shun the vile 
play in the theater. 

IV. Amusements cast a shadow when they 
endanger our joys. The German proverb says, 



Our Amusements 75 

" The good is enemy of the best." Amusement, 
fun and pleasure may be good ; but joy is bet- 
ter. Amusement is the dash of the spray, 
the sparkle on the surface ; joy is the flow of 
the deep current in the soul. We should not 
sacrifice the current for the spray or the sparkle. 
The joys of many a home have been destroyed 
by its amusements, and the joys of many a 
Christian have been laid waste by his amuse- 
ments. Whenever you find that amusement 
is intrenching upon your joy, sacrifice amuse- 
ment that the joy may be saved. 

The Bible magnifies joy ; it believes in laugh- 
ter, and there are ripples of it all through its 
pages. But there is a soul experience too deep 
to be expressed by laughter; it sometimes 
flows in tears, and no one can afford to sacri- 
fice this experience for a mere pastime. 

V. Amusements cast a shadow when they 
are associated with some great evil institution. 
The people of Israel played before the golden 
calf. There may have been no harm in their 
play, but it was associated with the evil insti- 
tution of idolatry. Paul said that he could eat 
meat offered to idols, for he regarded an idol 
as nothing, and he would not be injured by it. 
He had a right to eat, but he had a higher 
right, which was the right to give up this per- 
sonal privilege for the good of the weaker 
brother. He determined, therefore, to surren- 



"jG Lights and Shadows of American Life 

der this right, and never to eat meat while the 
world stands. Two men were in a boat above 
Niagara Falls. When they saw that the cur- 
rent was taking them down, by a bold stroke 
they reached the bank, and there on a tree 
was the placard : " No trespassing on these 
grounds." A farmer appeared with a fierce 
bulldog at his side, and one of these men was 
cruelly torn. The magistrate at Niagara used 
these words, which are worthy of a place on 
the fly leaf of your Bible, " You had a right, 
sir, to placard your land, but in this case there 
was involved the higher right to surrender your 
right for the good of humanity, and, because 
you failed to do so, I send you to jail for 30 
days." We may contend for the Christian 
privilege of indulging certain things, while we 
forget the higher privilege of self-denial, that 
we may have a larger influence for good. 

My rule of life is never to indulge in any 
amusement that links me with a great evil in- 
stitution. Let us try the card-table, the dance, 
and the theater by this test. The card-table is 
a world-wide evil institution which you find in 
all countries. Christian and pagan. It is the 
gambler's instrument. It has been blackened 
by dishonesty, stained by murder, and dis- 
graced by innumerable wrecks of character. 

A pack of cards is suggestive, not of an in- 
nocent game, but of a great foul institution 



Our Amusements JJ 

which has been a curse to mankind. Shall I 
indulge, and thus link myself with this institu- 
tion ? Or shall I deny myself that I may not 
be suggestive of the evil ? The square dance 
is in itself an innocent pastime, if indulged 
moderately, but the dance has become a world- 
wide institution of evil. The dance-house I 
cannot describe in polite society. The dance 
is linked with vice. It is not only worldly, but 
in many of its forms it is desperately wicked. 
Its associations are malodorous. There may 
be pleasure in the physical response to music, 
shall I yield to it and thus associate myself 
with a bad institution ? 

The theater as an institution is also bad. 
There are some moral plays as well as some 
moral actors and actresses, but, so far as I can 
find, there is not a moral theater in the world. 
Edwin Booth would not allow his children to 
go to the theater unless he knew the character 
of the play to be presented. His action proves 
that he considered the theater as bad, though 
some of the plays might be good. He deter- 
mined, however, to establish a moral theater, 
before whose footlights there should not be a 
display of woman's shame in spectacular ob- 
scenity. The result was Booth's theater failed, 
and paid five cents on the dollar. Henry Irv- 
ing determined that the Lyceum Theater 
should be moral, but the management had to 



78 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

change its quality to keep it from bankruptcy. 
Mary Anderson has left the stage, and has de- 
clared that on moral grounds she does not 
wish her children to attend the theater. I 
have seen the statement that McCready would 
not allow his children to go to the theater. 
Edwin Forrest, after hearing Dr. Brantley in 
Augusta, Georgia, preach a sermon denouncing 
the theater for its immorality, lingered after 
the service long enough to take the preacher 
by the hand, and say to him, " Sir, what you 
have said to-night is true ; only you have not 
painted the picture as dark as it is." 

Every theater in this great city admits to 
its footlights plays that are immoral in their 
tendency, and as an institution the theater is 
utterly bad. If some Christian man or woman 
with millions of dollars would establish a 
moral theater, where the Christian virtues of 
humility, and patience, and purity are taught 
without revenge for insult, which is the heart 
of tragedy, I would go to it, but such a theater 
would have to be supported as churches are 
supported, by the offerings of the lovers of 
truth and purity. 

VL Amusements cast a shadow when they 
produce in us a pleasure-loving spirit. There 
is a difference between pleasure in the midst 
of business and making a business of pleasure. 
The pleasure-seeking spirit is a living death, 



Our Amusements 79 

for God's Word says, " She that llveth in 
pleasure is dead while she liveth." When one 
determines to live the life of a butterfly, flit- 
ting from one flower of indulgence to another, 
he ceases to be a man ; he has become a thing. 
If you will turn to Job 21 : 12, you will find 
some of the results of this pleasure-seeking 
spirit : " They take the timbrel and harp, and 
rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend 
their days in wealth, and in a moment go down 
to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, 
Depart from us ; for we desire not the knowl- 
edge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, 
that we should serve him ? And what profit 
should we have if we pray unto him ? " When 
the pleasure-seeking spirit fills a man's life, he 
ceases to desire God. He says to him, " De- 
part from us." He sees no profit in prayer, or 
in the service of the Almighty. Pleasure is 
his god, and he becomes vain and empty like 
the god he worships. 

The picture of a pleasure-seeking life which 
is given us in the 2d chapter of Ecclesiastes, 
is enough to startle one who desires to be 
something or do something in the world. 
Solomon was rich enough to have everything 
that he desired, and he set himself to seeking 
pleasure. The result was that he hated life 
and declared that " all is vanity and striving 
after wind." Some one has described the 



8o Lights and Shadows of American Life 

palace of pleasure as a building " which has a 
gorgeous street entrance adorned with statuary 
and brilliant Avith variegated lights, and the 
passer is lured in by strains of music. The 
exit is a dark, narrow, concealed rear way which 
leads into the fields where swine are kept." 
As a gentleman entered a theater several years 
ago the usher beckoned to him with the words : 
" This way to the pit." The word " pit " was 
so suggestive that the man turned and left the 
theater in haste. However beautiful the en- 
trance to the pleasure-seeking life, and how- 
ever entrancing the music, the exit is into 
the swine field, and near the swine field is the 
precipice over which sooner or later we fall 
into the pit. 

VIL Amusements cast a shadow when, 
through this pleasure-seeking spirit, they dis- 
place the serious work of life. In the parable 
of the sower the seed was choked by the pleas- 
ures of the world, and when one makes up 
his mind that the end of life is simply to have 
a good time, duty is neglected, sacred obliga- 
tions are ignored, business lags, the prospects 
of life wither, and the end is despair. Here is 
a good place to hold the red flag of danger. 
The Duke of Orleans said when he was in this 
country he happened to be in a small village 
when a circus was there. He could not obtain 
dinner or any sort of service. The keeper of 



Our Amusements 8i 

the hotel informed him that no one would 
work that day, for everybody was going to the 
show. Such a holiday once in a while might 
produce little harm, but suppose that village 
should decide to quit work and attend the show 
every day, the result would be stagnation and 
death. Just so with the life of the man who 
allows pleasure to displace business, who lets 
fun and frolic swallow up the serious duties of 
life. The Romans became so greedy for amuse- 
ment that they demanded great outlay in pur- 
chasing wild animals and gladiators for their 
enjoyment in the arena. This pleasure-seeking 
spirit so enervated the people of Rome that 
they became easy prey to the serious North- 
men who came down upon them. 

As with the nation, so with the individual. 
Pleasure-seeking weakens character and makes 
it easy for us to be captured and destroyed by 
evil habits. I have read of some cavalrymen 
who, during iive or six weeks of rest, taught 
their horses to dance to the music of the band. 
It was great sport, but, when they were riding 
into battle, and the band began to play, hoping 
to inspirit the soldiers, the horses stopped in 
the charge and began to dance. The result 
was the enemy swept down upon them and 
conquered them. Many a man has lost the 
battle of life for the same reason. He is so 
possessed by the pleasure-seeking spirit that 
6 



82 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

when he ought to be serious and dutiful, he Is 
dancing, or gambhng, or in some other way 
frittering away his time. 

After Napoleon Bonaparte had killed the 
Duke D'Enghien, the indignation of the French 
people was so intense that there was danger of 
a revolution. The wily emperor quieted their 
consciences by producing for them the most 
magnificent ballet that Paris had ever seen. 
They rushed to the theater and forgot their 
grievances. It is hard for conscience to assert 
itself when the pleasure-seeking spirit is master. 

Everything that any one ought to enjoy the 
Christian may enjoy. What is sinful, or hurtful 
to body, mind or soul, should not be indulged 
by any one, and such indulgence displaces a 
purer enjoyment. If you will take Jesus Christ 
as your Saviour from sin, and as the Umpire of 
your life, submitting to him your pleasures as 
well as your duties, your life will be full of light, 
and the shadows that come will only refresh. 
He said, " I am the Light of the world. He 
that followeth me shall not walk in dark^ 
ness but shall have the light of life." And 
this light never becomes darkness. It grows 
brighter and brighter till the perfect day. 



VI 

OUR SABBATH 



^*JIe who ordained the Sabbath loves the poor.*^ 

Holmes. 

" The day that God has blessed 
Comes tranquilly on with its welcome rest. 
It speaks of creation'' s early blootn ; 
It speaks of the Pritice who burst the tomb. 
Then siunjnoji the Spirifs exalted powers 
And devote to heave)i the hallowed hours^ 

Ware. 

*■'■ Bright shadows of true rest! some shoots of 
bliss. 
Heaven once a week; 

The next world'' s gladness prepossessed in this.''^ 

Vaughafi. 



VI 

OUR SABBATH 

'■'■ Remember the Sabbath day, to 
keep it holyT Exodus 20 : 8. 

It is plain that the Sabbath existed before 
the law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai. 
" God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified 
it, because that in it he had rested from all 
his work." It came in as one of the laws of 
nature, and is founded primarily on the neces- 
sities of man. The Jews observed the Sabbath 
before they came to Sinai, because we are told 
they gathered a double portion of manna on 
the previous day. And it seems that they 
were delivered from Egyptian bondage on the 
Sabbath day, for we read in Deuteronomy 5:15: 
" Remember that the Lord thy God brought 
thee out thence through a mighty hand and 
by a stretched out arm ; therefore the Lord thy 
God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath 
day." 

There is thenceforth to be a twofold reason 
for observing the Sabbath. First, God hal- 
lowed it after the six days of creation ; and, 

85 



86 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

second, because he delivered them from Egyp- 
tian bondage. And in Exodus 31 : 12-17 
there is added still another significance to the 
day. " The children of Israel shall observe the 
Sabbath throughout their generations for a 
perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me 
and the children of Israel for ever." This 
trinity of hallowed meaning runs through the 
Old Testament. It is the day of rest, the day 
of deliverance, and the day which is to call 
to mind the covenant between God and his 
people. 

We are, therefore, not surprised to find in 
Isaiah 58: 13, 14, that God promises a great 
blessing to those who observe the Sabbath, and 
threatens a curse upon those who desecrate his 
holy day. ''If thou turn away thy foot from 
the Sabbath," that is, if thou refuse to trample 
upon the Sabbath, " from doing thy pleasure 
on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, 
the holy of the Lord, honorable ; and shalt 
honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor 
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine 
own words ; then shalt thou delight thyself in 
the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon 
the high places of the earth." Here is the 
promise to the Sabbath observer of personal 
joy and national prosperity. If we give up our 
own pleasure-seeking on that day, God will 
give us his pleasure, filling us with his joy. If 



Our Sabbath 87 

we call the Sabbath a delight, he will delight 
in us. If we honor the Sabbath, he will honor 
us. But if we bring down our uplifted foot 
in contempt upon God's day, he will leave us 
exposed to the working of the inexorable laws 
which will carry ruin to our entire being 

The Sabbath is a physical necessity. Dr. 
William D. Love, in his excellent book entitled 
" Sabbath and Sunday," gives a great funda- 
mental fact when he says : " Laws for rest 
are stationed all along the physical nature. 
The lungs rest after each breath we take. 
The blood-vessels rest between the heart beat- 
ings. The nerves and brain will have rest 
and will revenge themselves upon us if we cut 
short the supply. The ordaining of day and 
night to follow each other in quick succession 
through all ages of the world was a merciful 
appointment of God ; without it the human 
species would probably have become extinct 
at a very early period of time. But experience 
and observation have shown that the rest of 
night, and all forms of daily and nightly rest 
put together are insufficient forthe highest end 
of man's physical well-being. There must be 
days as well as nights of rest." 

Horses demand it. A man who used many 
horses in street-car travel stated to a meeting 
of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, in 1857, that his company, by not 



88 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

working the horses on Sunday, made a saving 
of 12 per cent. Even Plato the pagan had a 
glimpse of this law of nature when he said : 
" Out of pity for the wretched life of mortals 
the Deity has arranged days of festal recreation 
and refreshment." In the settlement of the 
great West it was found that parties who did 
not travel on Sunday reached their destination 
sooner, and in better condition, than those 
who traveled seven days in the week. 

Several years ago the French Minister of 
Marine gave orders that no workmen be em- 
ployed in the dock-yards on the Sabbath, and 
gave as his reason that man can do more by 
resting one day in seven than by working seven 
days in the week. It is a well-known fact 
that there are more suicides in Sabbath-break- 
ing than in Sabbath-keeping countries. Mr. 
Wilkie the painter declares that the artists of 
his acquaintance who worked on Sunday were 
soon disqualified for working at all. France, 
in her hatred for the church and the Bible, de- 
cided to observe every tenth day rather than 
the seventh, but it would not work. Many 
people observed the seventh day as an extra 
holiday. The law of our being evidently de- 
mands the seventh rather than the fifth or the 
tenth day. 

Lord Macaulay does not speak too strongly 
when he says : " While industry is suspended, 



Our Sabbath 89 

while the plow lies in the furrow, while the 
exchange is silent,while no smoke ascends from 
the factory, a process is going on quite as im- 
portant to the wealth of the nation as any 
process which is performed on more busy days. 
Man, the machine of machines, is repairing 
and winding up, so that he returns to his labor 
on Monday with clearer intellect, with live- 
lier spirits, with renewed corporal vigor." 
And Coleridge was not extravagant when he 
exclaimed : " I feel as if God by giving the 
Sabbath had given fifty-two springs in the 
year." 

The Sabbath is also a mental necessity. Mr. 
Love informs us that a man of twenty-five years' 
observation in New York city said that those 
merchants of his acquaintance who kept their 
counting rooms open on Sunday failed without 
exception. William Wilberforce declared that 
many public men who began life with him 
found an early grave, some being maniacs and 
others suicides, and he attributed the cause of 
their premature and untimely end to their dis- 
regard of the Sabbath. A professor of hygiene 
in Leipzig University said: "If religion calls 
the seventh day the day of the Lord, the hy- 
gienists will call Sunday the day of man." 
The unbending of the mental bow one day in 
seven gives strength for the work of the six 
days that follow. 



90 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

The Sabbath is a moral necessity. More 
than 90 per cent, of all criminals were habitual 
Sabbath-breakers before they became criminals. 
An English chaplain of prisons declares that 
during twenty-eight years of service he had 
made it a point to see in private those who were 
charged with capital offenses, and that he did not 
remember a single case among them all where 
the party had not been a Sabbath-breaker, 
and many of them assured him that Sabbath- 
breaking was the first step in their course of 
crime. Of 1,633 criminals who were in the 
New York State (Auburn) prison previous to 
1840, only 29 had any regard for the Sabbath. 
So conservative a writer as William Blackstone, 
the commentator on law, says a " corruption 
of morals usually follows a profanation of the 
Sabbath." A man who had to do with street 
railways in Boston gave as his opinion that the 
dishonesty of conductors was promoted by 
running the cars on Sunday. If men are 
taught to violate one of the ten commandments, 
why may they not violate another ? The 
cashier of a bank who was some time ago sen- 
tenced to the penitentiary for stealing, accused 
the president of being largely responsible for 
his crime, because the president had compelled 
him to work in the bank on Sunday. If you 
require your employees to desecrate the Sab- 
bath, do not blame them too severely if they 



Our Sabbath 91 

steal from your purse. If you have a right to 
rob God of his day, why have they not a right 
to rob you of your money ? 

I read some time ago of a company of rough 
men in the far west who had assembled in 
front of a country church awaiting the time of 
service. One of them asked another why he 
did not bring with him his gun, that he might 
kill some game on his return home. The other 
replied : " Suppose I should come up here 
with seven fine horses, and should say, ' Boys, 
I would like to give you six of these horses to 
be yours, you can use them as you will. I 
only want one.' You take my six horses and 
then follow me down the road to rob me of the 
horse which I have kept. Now, fellows, ain't 
that mean ? " And yet that is just what the 
man does who robs God of the Sabbath by 
doing his own pleasure and working for him- 
self on that day. God has given him the six 
days, and it is simple robbery for him to take 
the seventh. 

The Sabbath is certainly a spiritual necessity. 
There is no such thing as Christianity without 
it. Without it the church cannot exist, and 
there is no such thing as growth in grace to 
those who desecrate the Lord's day. I have 
little hope of developing any member of this 
church into a spiritual worker who reads the 
Sunday newspaper before he comes to church, 



92 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

or who rides his bicycle for a pleasure-trip into 
the country. 

It follows, therefore, that the Sabbath is a 
national necessity. Whatever is for the phys- 
ical, mental, moral and spiritual good of the 
people is for the good of the nation. " Right- 
eousness exalteth a nation," and without obedi- 
ence to the laws of our nature, which are the 
laws of God, there can be no national right- 
eousness. Laws for the protection of the Sab- 
bath are therefore for the protection of the 
nation. The men who, before the French Rev- 
olution, ceased to regard the Sabbath began 
to amuse themselves by cutting off each other's 
heads, and the result was anarchy. 

As animals, as thinkers, as moral agents, as 
Christians, as patriots, we should observe the 
Sabbath. Surely this fivefold necessity is a 
chord that ought not to be easily broken. 

But the question arises. What is the Sabbath ? 
The Jews observed the seventh day. Christians 
observe the first day. Which is right ? Well, 
you will notice that in the Decalogue we are 
not told to remember the seventh day, but 
remember the Sabbath, so that even in the ten 
commandments there is room for the obser- 
vance of another day provided it be one day in 
seven. It is of course impossible for everybody 
on the globe to observe the same point of time, 
for the seventh day in one place may be the 



Our Sabbath 93 

sixth day in another. Ships sailing in one 
direction lose, and in another gain, a day. The 
principle is evidently observed when we hallow 
one day in seven. Jesus, in his teaching, rescued 
the seventh day from the superstitions which 
had gathered around it. The Pharisees even 
discussed the question as to whether it was 
right to eat an egg laid on the Sabbath day. 

Their ritualistic observances had made the 
day a burden rather than a refreshment and a 
joy. Jesus taught by precept and practice 
that it was right to do well on the Sabbath day. 
The sick might be healed, the hungry might be 
fed, the distressed might be relieved. The ox 
should be taken out of the ditch, the ass should 
be led to water ; there was no harm in plucking 
the ears of corn, that the necessary meal might 
be prepared. In Luke 14: i we are even told 
that he dined with a Pharisee on the Sabbath 
day, and improved the occasion by profitable 
discussion. It was certainly no feast, but rather 
a simple meal. 

The Jews would not fight on the Sabbath 
day even in defense of their sacred city. 
Ptolemy, while besieging Jerusalem, learned 
this fact, and by making the attack on the 
Sabbath day easily captured the city and put 
thousands of them to the sword. The hallowed 
day had thus been so wrested from its original 
intent that Jesus spared no pains to rescue it 



94 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

and give it its proper setting. In the estima- 
tion of the superstitious Jew the Sabbath must 
be observed at the expense of health and life, 
so that it became a day not of rest but of ruin. 
And it was this day to which Paul referred 
when he wrote in Colossians 2:16: "Let no 
man judge you in meat or drink or in respect 
of a feast day, or of the new moon, or of the 
Sabbath days." The apostle had not thought 
of doing away with the day which is founded in 
physical, mental, moral, spiritual and national 
necessities. He was simply urging the Colos- 
sians not to be brought into bondage to the 
superstitious observances of the Jews with re- 
gard to that day. 

But we are told that Jesus did not reaffirm 
the fourth commandment in his conversation 
with the rich young man. True, but he did 
not reaffirm the first commandment. He tested 
this young man only by the second tabic of the 
law, which gives our relations to each other, 
not our relations to God. The Sabbath is 
God's day, and the command to observe it 
is in the first table of the law. On the same 
ground we might practice idolatry because 
Jesus did not reaffirm the command against 
worshiping idols. But in the Sermon on the 
Mount the Lord did reaffirm the whole moral 
law. " One jot or one tittle shall in no wise 
pass from the law till all be fulfilled." While 



Our Sabbath 95 

there are bodies, minds, hearts and souls on 
earth or in heaven the law of the Sabbath can- 
not pass away. The moral law will be as good 
for heaven as for earth, and is eternal in its 
binding force. To set it aside would be to 
throw the world into moral chaos. Jesus gives 
us the great principle when he says : " The 
Sabbath was made for man," and therefore no 
one has a right to take the Sabbath from him. 
It is for his good, and if he destroys it by deny- 
ing its obligations or by desecrating it, he is 
really destroying himself. 

" The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath," 
and has, therefore, a right to change the day 
from the seventh to the first, and this he did 
by a series of providences that hallowed the 
first day as truly as God hallowed the sev- 
enth at the end of the creative week. It was 
on the first day of the week that Jesus rose 
from the dead. He hallowed that day by ap- 
pearing five times to his disciples, and he does 
not appear again for six days afterwards. His 
next appearance is on the first day of the week, 
when he confirms the faith of doubting Thomas. 
There was a seventh day intervening, but he 
paid no attention to it. It was on the first day 
of the week when the Holy Spirit came on Pen- 
tecost in the tongues of fire and as a rushing, 
mighty wind. This was the birthday of the 
New Testament church. Paul preached at 



96 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

Troas, and broke bread on the first day of 
the week, and he wrote to the Corinthian 
Christians to lay aside of their substance on 
the first day of the week as the Lord had 
prospered them. This act of giving was a 
sacred act of worship and harmonized with the 
sacredness of the day. On the Isle of Patmos 
John was in the spirit of the Lord on the Lord's 
day. 

The early church certainly observed the first 
day of the week as its Sabbath. The fact that 
the Christian Sabbath is not the seventh day, 
but the first, is one of the strongest proofs that 
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. As we have 
seen, the Jews regarded the seventh day with 
superstitious reverence, and yet within a gen- 
eration converted Jews ceased to regard the 
seventh day, and hallowed the first. No one 
can explain this change except on the ground 
that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day 
of the week, and the fact of his resurrection 
caused the change. 

I am glad that our Lord gave no specific 
command setting apart the seventh day. His 
resurrection is command enough. By its power 
the first day was sanctified, and by the incar- 
nation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost it was 
made doubly hallowed. On the Lord's day we 
think now of the new creation rather than the 
old, of the deliverance from sin rather than 



Our Sabbath 97 

from Egypt, and the covenant of blood rather 
than the covenant of works, of the power and 
presence of the living Christ rather than the 
form of dying Judaism. 

By faith in the death and resurrection of 
Jesus we may have the Sabbath in our hearts. 
" Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest." As the Sab- 
bath day comes in the midst of busy days sur- 
rounded by turmoil and confusion, so the heart 
rest may be ours in the midst of business and 
even cares that press. This Sabbath within 
harmonizes sweetly with the spirit of the Sab- 
bath without, and is a foretaste of the eternal 
Sabbath which remains to the people of God. 
7 



VII 
OUR POLITICS 



" A politician, Proteus-like, doth alter 
His face and habit ; and, like water ^ seem 
Of the same color that the vessel is 
That doth contain it, varying his form, 
With the chameleon, at each object's changed 

Mason. 

^* Atnerica, half brother of the world ! 
With something good and bad of every landV 

Bailey. 



VII 

OUR POLITICS 

" When the righteous are in au- 
thority, the people rejoice : but when 
a wicked Jtian bcareth rule, the people 
sighr Proverbs 2g : 2. 

" Render therefore unto Ccesar the 
thitigs which are Ccesar'' s.''^ Mat- 
thew 22 : 21. 

"/ appeal unto Ccssar." Acts 
23:11. 

" Righteousness exalteth a nation, 
but sin is a reproach to any people. ^^ 
Proverbs 14 :J4. 

Politics is defined by the Standard Diction- 
ary, first, " as the branch of civics that treats of 
the principles of civil government, and the con- 
duct of state affairs ; the administration of public 
affairs in the interest of peace, prosperity, and 
safety of the state ; synonymous with state- 
craft and political science ; in a wide sense, 
embracing the science of government and civil 
polity." Second, " as political affairs in a party 
sense ; the administration of public affairs or 

lOI 



102 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

conduct of political matters so as to carry elec- 
tions and secure public offices ; synonymous 
with party intrigues, political wire-pulling, and 
trickery." 

The first definition gives us the realm of the 
statesman who studies the science of govern- 
ment, and applies its principles to public affairs, 
seeking the good of the whole nation. The 
second definition gives us the realm of the pol- 
itician who studies the art of getting into office, 
and profiting all he can at the public expense. 
The statesman is a patriot who would serve his 
country. The politician is a barnacle attached 
to the body politic, who seeks to make his 
country serve him. 

We are told by some that Christians, es- 
pecially Christian ministers, should have noth- 
ing to do with politics, but whether we have 
to do with politics or not, politics is certain to 
have to do with us ; and, if the Bible does not 
touch upon politics, it is not the book we have 
taken it to be, which throws light upon every 
phase of human life. Politics is universal in 
time and space. It may differ in different ages ; 
it is one thing in a republic, and another in a 
monarchy, and still another in partly civil- 
ized nations, but in some from politics affect 
human life everywhere. In this country it 
affects not only the machinery of government 
but in its influence for good or evil touches 



Our Politics 103 

the church, the home, the school-house, and the 
individual. 

We will now look at our politics in the light 
of four texts of Scripture : 

The first text gives us the underlying prin- 
ciple of all government, and is found in Proverbs 
29 : 2 : " When the righteous are in authority, 
the people rejoice : but when the wicked beareth 
rule, the people sigh." 

Bad rulers with bad laws tend to make a 
bad people, while good rulers with good laws 
tend to make a good people. Every man in 
high position is a fountain of health or disease. 
His influence is a light that gives life, or a 
Upas shade that poisons. If the president, 
governor, or mayor is known to be a bad man, 
young men will say to themselves : "If he can 
be bad, and yet be honored, why may I not in- 
dulge my evil desires without sacrificing the 
prospect of political preferment ? If his wick- 
edness is no obstacle to his success, my wick- 
edness need be no obstacle to my success." 
And yet there are Christian men who contend 
that, because their citizenship is in heaven, 
they have no citizenship on earth, and have 
therefore nothing to do with the election of 
men to office or the enactment of righteous laws. 
Two of the best men I have ever known have 
for fifteen years refused to vote, because they 
consider politics as thoroughly bad, and think 



104 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

that a Christian by meddling with it will be pol- 
luted. They have simply left the city, state,and 
the nation so far as they are concerned, to be 
ruled by the Devil and his minions, and we verily 
believe are guilty of a great sin of omission. 
" Do good unto all men " is a command which 
should be binding upon the conscience of every 
Christian ; and, if by voting for a righteous man 
or a righteous principle, one may do good, he 
does harm when he refuses to improve this 
opportunity. 

My second text gives us the responsibilities 
of citizenship, and is found in Matthew 22: 21. 
*' Render therefore unto Caesar the things which 
are Caesar's." Caesar represented the state, and 
pagan though he was he was to receive his due. 
There are a few Christians who refuse to vote 
because the name of God is not in the Consti- 
tution, and because many of our officials are 
infidels. And in this they are wrong. The 
ballot is a weapon of peace for the remedying 
of all political evils : 

" A weapon firmer set 

And better than the bayonet, 
A weapon that comes down as still 

As snow-flakes fall upon the sod, 
And executes a freeman's will, 

As lightning does the will of God." 

The superscription on the coin indicated 
that tribute should be paid to Caesar, and it is 



Our Politics 105 

right for Christian men to pay taxes for the 
support of Government. Thoreau declared that 
he did not desire any protection, he wished no 
government, he preferred to be his own govern- 
or, he would live in his cabin among the trees 
and birds independent of all others. He there- 
fore refused to pay taxes, and went to jail in 
consequence. And yet Thoreau, but for the 
protection of the government which he despised, 
might have been robbed and killed without 
hindrance. Every man who enjoys the pro- 
tection of government has upon him the re- 
sponsibility of doing what will support that 
government. If every man in the United 
States should refuse to vote, there could be no 
Republican government. The dictate of a ty- 
rant, or the sword of a military chieftain would 
be our only law, and, if one man has a right to 
refuse to vote, all have the same right ; and if 
the right should be asserted, the best form of 
government in the world would be at an end. 
"Pray for them that are in authority," says 
Paul, and prayer for rulers at that day was the 
only means that the Christain had for securing 
a better rule. If Paul were living now, he 
would say : " Vote to put good men in author- 
ity and then pray for them that they may rule 
well." 

Do we pray for those in authority? You 
reply that there is some doubt as to who is to 



io6 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

be in authority, especially in Greater New York, 
Mr. Van Wyck has been elected Mayor, but 
the newspapers more than intimate that 
Richard Croker is in authority. Well, then, 
pray for Richard Croker. I wonder if one of 
you ever did pray for the man who during the 
past ten years has been more soundly abused 
than any other man in New York State. He 
may be bad, — all the more reason that you 
should pray for him. If God should convert 
him, and win him from the love of gambling 
to the love of doing good, the bad boss would 
become a good leader. And it ought perhaps 
to be said that the cry against political bosses 
is usually very childish. Every great move- 
ment must have a leader, as every body must 
have a head. If the party leader be a man 
wise and true, patriotic and unselfish, he can 
do much for the enactment of righteous laws, 
the election of righteous men, and the uplifting 
of the people. 

Perhaps you do not believe in political 
parties at all ; you think that the non-partizan 
movement is apt to be the righteous one, and 
therein you may be sadly mistaken. The 
party in this country is necessary for the car- 
rying forward of any great reform. It means 
simply the organization of the men who hold 
certain principles. The difference between a 
political party and a thoroughly non-partizan 



Our Politics 107 

movement is the difference between an army 
and a mob. The mob may have a leader, but 
it is a mob all the same. Mugwumpery is an 
attempt to run government without a party. 
The good in it emphasizes the importance of 
personal character in candidates, the bad in it 
is the failure to recognize the absolute necessity 
of organization for the permanence of any re- 
form. Between government by party, and 
government by individual candidates without 
any party to whom they are responsible, I, for 
one, choose the former. The man who feels 
that he has been elected by the organization 
and efforts of his party, and who knows that 
unless he is faithful to the principles that party 
represents, he will receive political chastise- 
ment, is more apt to do right than the man 
who has no party responsibility, but feels that 
he is a sort of pope in his own political sphere, 
dictator of his own terms, without any organi- 
zation to which he must give an account. He 
may be held in check by public sentiment, but 
the man who represents a party has also the 
check of public sentiment with the restraint of 
party fealty. Of course, when the party is or- 
ganized without principle, simply for spoils, 
and its business is to enrich itself while it robs 
others, the representative of such a party may 
be a very dangerous man. But sooner or 
later the public sentiment of this country will 



io8 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

sweep from power man and party when such a 
state of affairs has been discovered. 

What the Christian citizen needs to ask is 
what party represents righteous principles and 
nominates righteous men, and believes in 
enacting and enforcing righteous laws. With 
that party let him vote, and, if he can find no 
such party in existence, let him seek to or- 
ganize one, for he can find a few others at 
least of like mind who will stand together for 
righteousness. But let him not feel he can do 
most good by remaining apart from others, as 
a sort of bushwhacker, not connected with any 
regular army. 

My third text suggests the use of citizen- 
ship, and is found in Acts 25. ii : " I appeal 
unto Caesar." 

Paul was a Roman citizen. He had been 
unjustly arrested and persecuted- He sought 
safety by putting himself under the protection 
of the Roman Eagle. He wanted to preach 
the gospel in Rome and here was an opportu- 
nity of using his Roman citizenship to gratify 
that life-long wish. By appealing to Caisarhe 
could be carried to Rome, and there proclaim 
Christ under the shadow of the palace. It was 
by means of his Roman citizenship that he 
was permitted to preach to Caesar's household 
through the soldiers who were chained to him 
in turn. I can imagine Paul winning the favor 



Our Politics 109 

of each one of these rough men by kindly 
words, pleasant conversation, and then preach- 
ing unto them Jesus with such clearness and 
earnestness that they accept him, so that when 
they are freed from their prisoner, they go out 
freed from the guilt of sin. Through the 
privilege of his Roman citizenship he was per- 
mitted to lay siege to the citadel of paganism 
until he made a breach in its walls. 

American citizenship means in the world to- 
day about what Roman citizenship meant in 
the time of Paul. It is the traveler's protec- 
tion and pride. Under the Stars and Stripes 
he is safe everywhere. It gives him an open 
door into every pagan land. To despise such 
a heritage is to be an ingrate indeed. To refuse 
to make this citizenship mean what it ought to 
mean by the election of righteous men, and the 
enactment of righteous laws, is to fail in the 
performance of sacred duty. 

My fourth text gives us the need of good 
citizenship, and is found in Proverbs 14:34: 
" Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a 
reproach to any people." 

And this righteousness is civic, social and 
personal. Civic righteousness is right relation 
of the citizen to the government, and of the 
government to the citizen. No government 
has a right to treat its citizens unjustly, un- 
fairly, oppressively, and no citizen has the right 



no Lights and Shadows of American Life 

to treat the government unfairly or unjustly. 
Think of this, will you ? when you list your 
property for taxation. We are told that good 
men do not hesitate to use stratagem for de- 
frauding the government out of its tribute. It 
has been said that the tax list proves nearly 
every man in the community a liar. This may 
be an exaggeration, but I am quite sure that 
there is a sentiment prevalent which prompts 
men to deal with the government as they would 
not deal with individuals. When I returned 
from Europe I was told by several passengers 
on the steamship just how I might evade pay- 
ing tariff on some articles which I had pur- 
chased. I did not try to evade, and as the re- 
sult my trunk was opened and $25 or $30 was 
collected on articles purchased for my own 
private use. I noticed, however, that piles of 
trunks were not touched. They understood 
the trick of defrauding the government, but I 
have never regretted that I kept a good con- 
science. A few dollars would not pay for the 
reflection that I had acted unfairly or dishon- 
estly toward the government. 

Social righteousness is a right relation be- 
tween individuals. Much is said about in- 
equality in the distribution of wealth, and, if 
there should be an equal distribution to-morrow, 
there would come again the next week a great 
inequality. To make all people poor alike or 



Our Politics in 

rich alike is neither practicable nor desirable, 
but to make all people friendly and kind and 
considerate, whether they be rich or poor, is an 
end to be earnestly sought. If the rich man 
had some common footing with the poor man, 
if he would realize that his poor brother is truly 
human, with joys and sorrows and struggles 
like his own, he would be richer, and the poor 
man would be better off. If, on the other 
hand, the poor man could find a common foot- 
ing with the rich man, and realize that his 
wealthy brother has struggles, sorrows, and joys 
and burdens, like his own, there would be a 
common fraternity of humanity which would 
be the best cement for the perpetuity of our 
government. 

The horse of a rich man, while driving 
through Central Park several months ago, ran 
away, and his carriage struck a poor peddler, 
knocking him senseless and leaving him bleed- 
ing on the ground. The rich man went to 
him, put his head in his lap, sent for a physician, 
carried him to a good hotel, and had him care- 
fully nursed into health again. The poor ped- 
dler was surprised to learn that the man on 
whose lap he laid his bleeding head, and who 
spoke to him such words of loving comfort, be- 
longed to the class whom he had cursed as he 
thought of their wealth and luxuries compared 
with his poverty and struggles. He learned 



112 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

for the first time that behind the exterior of 
wealth there was a genuine human heart. 

A rich woman in Chicago, who had lost her 
only child, was induced by her maidservant to 
take a bouquet of flowers and lay it upon the 
little cofifin in the home of her washerwoman. 
Rich woman and poor mother stood and 
wept over the little body, while they spoke to 
each other words of consolation. 

Li these two cases the rich and the poor had 
found a common footing ; they realized that 
they were akin, that they could suffer alike, and 
that manhood and womanhood did not depend 
upon the size of the purse, or the location of 
the house, or the quality of clothes ; and, when 
such relations of love shall be brought about 
by the gospel of Christ, this government will be 
forever secure. But until then we may listen 
for the rumble of the earthquake of revolu- 
tion ; we may guard against the foment of dis- 
content. We hear much about manhood suf- 
frage, which means that every man has the 
right to vote, regardless of the amount of money 
which he possesses. It ought to mean that 
only true manhood shall vote. Vice, anarchy, 
corruption, ignorance have no right with the 
ballot. And if this be true, every Christian 
should receive a new inspiration to work for 
the elevation of all the people. The love of 
Christ and patriotism should prompt us to give 



Our Politics 113 

them the gospel which will develop in them a 
true manhood. 

Personal righteousness is the right relation 
between the individual and his God. Such 
righteousness can come only through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. *' For he hath made him to be 
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be 
made the righteousness of God in him." Paul 
wrote the letter to the Romans, to prove that 
righteousness is primarily right relation, not 
right doing, and he besought men to be recon- 
ciled to God. Until we get right, we cannot do 
right. And until we come into right relation, 
all the righteousness of doing is filthy rags. 
Jesus Christ alone can make men truly 
righteous, and is therefore the Saviour of the 
state as well as of the individual. 
8 



VIII 
OUR CITIES 



" Saltpetre^ sulphur and charcoal are each one 
non-explosive, but brought together they make gun- 
powder. Neither ignorance nor vice is revolu- 
tionary iahe?i quite comfortable, fior is wretched- 
ness, ivhen controlled by intelligence and conscience. 
But ignorance, vice and wretchedness, combined, 
co/istitute social dynamite of which the city slum. 
is a magazine aivaiting only a casual spark to 
durst into terrijic destruction,^^ 

Strong. 



VIII 

OUR CITIES 

" And when he drew nigh, he saw 
the city, aftd wept over itr Luke 
ig : 41. 

The history of cities is the history of the 
world. The word city occurs in the Bible 262 
times, and, if all references to Babylon, Nine- 
veh, Tyre, Sidon, Rome, Athens, Corinth, 
Ephesus, and Jerusalem were taken from the 
book, it would reduce its size by nearly one- 
half. Cities are truly the " nerve centers and 
storm centers of the world." Every city is a 
great heart, throbbing with life and sending 
out good blood or bad through its thousand 
arteries of activity. To save the cities is to 
save the world. 

The text tells us that Jesus drew near to the 

city of Jerusalem. He did much of his work 

there. It was cosmopolitan in its population. 

People from every nation under heaven, as we 

see from the list at Pentecost, were in the habit 

of visiting this great city. We, the followers 

of Christ, should draw near the city. It is said, 

117 



1 18 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

all the world is moving to town. Our great 
cities are increasing with Avonderful rapidity. 
But people can live in the city without being 
very near it. The merchant may know the 
way from his house to the street car, and from 
the street car to his store. He goes to church 
on Sunday, and to a few other places during 
the week, but he may be as far removed from 
the great surging life of the city with its sin 
and struggle, as if he lived a thousand miles 
distant. 

Men of wealth should come near to the pov- 
erty of the alleys, and learn how the other 
half live, and men of toil should come as near as 
you can to the wealthy abodes on the avenue 
and realize that riches have their burdens, and 
that men of money need sympathy. Oh, if 
we could just get nearer together in this great 
city, there would be a fraternity of humanity. 
If we knew more of each other, there would be 
less ill-will and hard speech. 

Jesus beheld the city. We think of his 
crossing the brow of Olivet, and seeing the 
domes of the city looming up before him in 
the distance. If we had been with him, we 
might have had only this external view. But 
he saw the whole city. Not a thing on its 
streets, or in its houses was hid from his view. 
He saw its sin, its suffering, its joy, its sorrow, 
its wealth, its poverty, indeed everything that 



Our Cities 119 

the eye of the Omniscient God could penetrate 
was open to his view. 

As Jesus draws near and beholds the city of 
to-day, what does he see ? 

First of all, he sees the best type of Chris- 
tianity and the worse type of infidelity. The 
religion that stands the fire-test of the city is 
pure gold. There is a kind of country religion 
that will not bear transportation into city life. 
There are hundreds of men in New York who 
were useful as deacons, trustees, Sunday- 
school teachers, in the old country church, but 
now they are worthless. They have become 
ecclesiastical sponges. They drift around suck- 
ing in a little here and there, trying to get as 
much as they can for nothing. 

And yet the type of religion in the country 
church is just what the city needs, — faith before 
it is slimed over by infidelity, prayer that pleads 
the promises without the waver of doubt, praise 
that rises from simple honest hearts unto God 
the giver of all, a religion fresh as the grass of 
spring, and sweet as the perfume of the flowers 
of the field. That sort of religion is just what 
the dusty, rattling, bustling city needs. 
Young man from the country, hold on to it, 
prize it above gold, cultivate it in your room, and 
seek the church where you find it is fostered. 

But there is a religion from the country 
which the city can afford to do without. 



I20 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

People who are very pious at home vv^hen they 
come to the great city frequently feel free to 
attend the theater, and, as they say, " see the 
world." The country cousin entices city 
young people into places to which they would 
not think of going, but for the desire to please 
their friends. A man from the South said to 
a pastor in Baltimore : " How do you get 
along with these worldly Christians in the 
city ? " The pastor replied, " My friend, when 
did you go to the theater last ? " He had to 
confess that he had been the night before, and 
was in the habit of going at least once every 
time he came from his country home to the 
city. " Yes," continued the pastor, " And 
that is the evil we city pastors have to contend 
against. There are twenty-five members of my 
church, born and raised in Baltimore, who 
never went to the theater in their lives. They 
know the evil of it ; they were taught by pious 
parents to shun it, but you country people 
come here and tempt them to violate their con- 
sciences in order to gratify you." 

It ought to be said also that there is a type 
of city religion which will not bear transporta- 
tion. A pastor in the Adirondack Mountains 
told me that his church was greatly demoralized 
every summer by the influence of Christians 
from the city. At the summer place they in- 
dulge in things that he preached against. Some 



Our Cities I2i 

of his young people thought him old-fogylsh. 
These progressive Christians from the city at- 
tracted their attention, and turned them from 
the simple spiritual life to a mixed life of world- 
liness and church-going. 

But after we have said all that ought to be 
said about the sham religion of the city, there 
is here the highest type of faith, self-sacrifice, 
devotion to truth, sympathy with suffering 
humanity, in a word, love for God and man, and, 
under the stress of great temptation, there is 
developed the finest type of Christian character 
in the world. 

Again, Jesus would see the best institutions 
and the worst. Here are scores of organizations 
for the betterment of the people, hundreds of 
churches pointing with their spires to heaven, 
with a large percentage of their membership 
true and tried, seeking to do good in the world. 
Here are organizations for helping the news- 
boy, the bootblack, the orphan, the sick, the 
wandering, the criminal. Every department 
of sin and suffering has called forth circles of 
earnest men and women who are pledged and 
organized to contend against its ravages. 
There is more giving as well as better living in 
these great cities than anywhere else on the 
globe. But side by side with these good in- 
stitutions are the combined forces of evil. The 
liquor traffic is an octopus with its slimy ten- 



122 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

tacle upon everything good. Gambling is ram- 
pant, the streets are full of mantraps. Joseph 
Parker declares that the Stock Exchange is the 
bottomless pit of London. There are Christian 
men on the Stock Exchange who do legitimate 
business, but most of them are gamblers seek- 
ing to get something for nothing. 

Club life is a growing menace to the home. 
The lodge is becoming the foe of the church. 
When a young man comes to the city, there are 
scores of forces which at once pull him down- 
ward, to one force that draws him upward. 
He lives in a bleak boarding-house, in a little 
room without fire, while Christian homes are 
closed against him because they do not know 
him. The saloon, however, asks no questions, 
invites him in, gives him a comfortable seat, 
and makes him feel at home. If the mother 
in the country knew some mother in the city, 
and would write to her about the boy in the 
boarding-house, the motherhood of the city 
would respond and seek him out. But harlotry 
does not wait for an invitation. Those "whose 
feet take hold on hell " are after him at once ; 
the Siren song entices, and when the boy comes 
back to spend the holidays in his country home, 
the mother notices a change. He has ceased 
to be the simple-hearted, trustful, pure boy that 
he was. If the wrecks of character made in 
this great city during the past ten years could 



Our Cities 123 

be made visible and piled up on the streets, it 
would take the Street Cleaning Department a 
month to remove the debris ; all traffic would be 
stopped, while the air would be fetid with the 
malodors of lost characters. 

Jesus, as he beheld the city, was moved to 
tears. The word " wept " does not mean that 
he shed tears silently as he did at the grave of 
Lazarus. It means to shriek or to wail. As 
the city with its agony came before him, it broke 
his heart, his wail of agony mingled with 
the hosannas of the crowd, and hushed them 
into silence. If we could see to-day what he 
saw then, and what he sees now, our hearts, 
though harder than his, might wail out their 
agony. 

The politician sees in the crowd that throng 
our streets so many voters, the merchant sees 
so many customers, Jesus sees so many im- 
mortal souls with capacity for infinite develop- 
ment or degradation. How does the crowd 
affect you ? Are you indifferent to it ? Then 
you are not akin to " the Son of man " whose 
heart was big enough to take in all classes of 
people. While Jesus looked at the crowd, he 
spoke in faithfulness a fearful truth. He said, 
You have lost your opportunity, you refuse to 
accept the things which belong to your peace, 
but now they are hid from your eyes. " The 
days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies 



124 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee 
round, and keep thee in on every side, and 
shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy 
children within thee ; and they shall not leave 
in thee one stone upon another ; because thou 
knewest not the time of thy visitation." 

For all that we know he is speaking these 
very words of New York, Chicago, and other 
great cities. He has given them the Sabbath, 
the day of rest and peace. Do they despise it ? 
Are they not planning to desecrate it more and 
more ? As I crossed Brooklyn Bridge last 
Sunday, and heard the clang of hammers while 
a greedy corporation was desecrating God's day 
that they may fill their pockets with gold, I 
thought I could hear these prophetic words 
from the Son of man. And as I read the 
accounts of large appropriations made to public 
works from the license of the liquor traffic, I 
hear the words of the prophet, " Woe to him 
that establisheth a city with iniquity." It 
might help us to walk amid the ruins of Babylon, 
Nineveh, Tyre and Sidon, with Bible in hand, 
reading the doom of those cities who refused 
to honor God. I am no alarmist, but I believe 
that the God of righteousness reigns, and the 
city that forgets him, refusing to submit to his 
law, will sooner or later meet the doom of the 
disobedient. 

But Jesus was not content simply to weep 



Our Cities 125 

and warn, he set about remedying the evil. 
He went into the temple and drove out all 
those who made it a den of thieves. And while 
we look about us at existing evils, we are not to 
spend our time in fruitless tears, or bitter de- 
nunciation ; we should do something, and the 
first thing that needs to be done is a thorough 
cleansing of the church of God. Men who are 
saints on Sunday and devils during the week 
ought to be cast out. They are more apt to 
repent after they have felt the whip of scourges 
driving them from the temple of purity, than 
if they were kept in for the sake of their money 
or influence. If Jesus were here with his whip 
of scourges, he would drive out the millionaire 
who attends eccelesiastical conventions and 
makes big speeches, while he lives in adultery ; 
he would drive out the man who teaches in 
the Sunday-school and swears at his clerks 
during the week ; he would drive out the man 
who praises God as he sings from his well bound 
book on Sabbath morning, and during the week 
pollutes the air with the fumes of rum which 
he has taken with convivial friends over the 
saloon counter. He would drive out the wo- 
man who comes to church on Sunday to show 
her finery, and spends the week debauching the 
young by teaching them to gamble in pro- 
gressive euchre parties. In a word, he would 
drive out all men and women who are simply 



126 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

whitewashed without being washed white. 
" Let judgment begin at the house of God." 

I believe that the real church of Christ was 
never better and purer than it is to-day, the 
church within the church that walk with God 
and do his will. The good is growing better, 
while the bad is growing worse, on the principle 
that the gospel is the savor of death unto death 
or of life unto life. There is more light now in 
the world than ever before, and those who 
resist it are made worse under the process. I 
am not railing against the church of Jesus, but 
I do contend that thieves, gamblers, adulterers, 
and corrupters of youth should, if they will 
not repent, be driven from the courts of God's 
temple, and, when they are out, honest people 
will come in. 

Jesus continued to teach daily in the city. 
The saloon is at work day and night ; the har- 
lot is always on the watch ; these mantraps 
are set every hour. Shall Christians be con- 
tent to open their churches for a pleasant ser- 
vice only once or twice a week, while the ser- 
vants of the Devil are at their nefarious busi- 
ness every day ? We need a revival of seven 
days' religion, not less of Sunday worship, but 
more of week-day work for Christ. The 
McAll Mission had never been heard of as a 
success if it had not preached the gospel every 
day in the halls of Paris. The Salvation Army 



Our Cities 127 

has done a mighty work by keeping at it all 
the time. 

While we work with Christ for the salvation 
of the cities of earth, let us remember he is 
preparing for us a city. He said, " I go to pre- 
pare a place for you," and we learn that heaven 
is a redeemed municipality. The imagery of 
the Bible is suggestive of purity, — streets of 
gold, gates of pearls, walls of Jasper; " It has, 
no need of the sun, for the Lamb is the light 
thereof." The time is coming when there will 
be in the universe one great city, and one other 
place which has no characteristics of city life. 
Heaven has streets ; hell is represented as a 
lake of fire, tempest-tossed. There is no order 
there. Sin is anarchy. We have the choice 
between the city of order and light and the 
place of disorder and darkness : 

" Choose I must, and soon must choose 
Holiness, or heaven lose; 
While what heaven loves, I hate, 
Shut for me is heaven's gate. 

"Endless sin means endless woe; 
Into endless sin I go, 
If my soul, from reason rent, 
Takes from sin its final bent. 

" As the stream its channel grooves, 
And within that channel moves, 
So doth habit's deepest tide 
Groove its bed, and there abide. 



128 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

" Light obeyed increaseth light, 
Light resisted bringeth night ; 
Who shall give me will to choose, 
If the love of light I lose ? 

" Speed, my soul ; this instant yield ; 
Let the Light its scepter wield, 
While thy God prolongeth grace. 
Haste thee toward his holy face 1 ^ 



IX 

OUR BIBLE 



" Thou truest friend man ever knew. 
Thy cons ta f icy Ih'e tried ; 
When all were false ^ I found thee true, 
My cou?isellor and guide. 
The mities of earth no treasures give 
That could this volume buy ; 
In teaching me the way to live. 
It taught me how to die." 

Morris, 



IX 

OUR BIBLE 

" The Word of Godr Hebrews 
4. : 12. 

The Bible never casts a shadow. Its truth 
is light and life. Christian civilization owes 
its development to the Bible. It is translated 
into almost every language on earth, and by 
this linguistic intercourse of nations, commerce 
and arts and sciences have been promoted. 
Only the missionary who laid himself on God's 
altar as a sacrifice was willing to spend his 
life in mastering dif^cult foreign languages 
that he might translate the Bible into them, 
and carry the Word of Life to the people. 
The missionary has thus brought the ends of 
the earth together, and made possible the 
great commercial advances of modern times. 
When an Indian chief asked Queen Victoria 
what was the secret of England's greatness, 
she quietly handed him a Bible. 

The old Book is unique. Like Goliath's 
sword there is none like it. As in a composite 
flower there are many perfect flowers in one, 

131 



132 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

so in the Bible there are many books. It is 
really a collection of sixty-six volumes, a whole 
library between two covers. It was about 
1500 years in growing. Its authors differed in 
language, nationality, and surroundings. There 
were among them shepherds, kings, priests, 
mechanics, fishermen, physicians, theologians, 
and law makers. Some were learned, others 
illiterate. 

While the personality of the different authors 
is clearly seen, it has a style of its own. Stand- 
ing on the top of the Rocky Mountains with 
a conch-shell to your ear, you can hear the 
roar of the ocean ; so the Bible carries with it 
everywhere the surf sounds of the ocean of 
God's thought and power and love. 

It teaches from beginning to end the fact 
of one God. Where did the writers get this 
idea? Certainly not from the nations about 
them, Herodotus informs us that 500 B. C. 
there were in Egypt more gods than men. In 
India not less than 300,000,000 of false deities. 
The Persians worshiped almost everything 
associated with light or fire. The fields, 
groves, and cities of Greece were full of im- 
aginary deities, and yet all these writers for 
1500 years taught that there was only one 
God. 

There runs through the whole Bible a unity of 
purpose. We see it first of all in the curse upon 



Our Bible 133 

the serpent in Genesis, and like the rising sun it 
grows brighter and brighter till the perfect day 
of the New Testament. Its purpose is to reveal 
God in Christ Jesus. With this bright rev- 
elation of Jesus the Saviour there is a dark 
revelation of man the sinner. The infidel in- 
forms us that there are parts of the Bible 
which ought not to be read in public. Yes, 
friend, and there are parts of you that ought 
not to be read in public. The old Book has 
no prudery, it speaks out, and has something 
to say to the daughter which the mother can 
scarcely whisper. It has a word to the son 
which the father would not venture to utter. 
It is a book, not for the crowd, but for the 
individual. 

More than four thousand times God signs his 
name to this book as his very word. Begin 
with Genesis and read through Revelation, and 
you will find that books, chapters, paragraphs, 
verses and words bear the signature of God. 
" Thus said the Lord," rings through it. " Hear 
the Word of the Lord." " The Holy Ghost 
spake by the mouth of David." " The proph- 
ecy came not in old time by the will of men, 
but holy men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost." "All Scripture is 
God breathed." " Of course there are utter- 
ances in the Bible which are not inspired. I 
would not preach from the words of the devil, 



134 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

except to condemn them, but the fact that the 
devil said just those things is inspired. God is 
responsible for everything in the book. 

It is as clear as light that the authors of 
these books claimed that they were inspired. 
If they were not, then we have to explain how 
the book which contains the highest morality 
ever given to earth could be written by a set 
of liars. These bad men at the same time 
wrote their own doom, for no vice is more 
severely condemned in the Bible than decep- 
tion. To claim that good men wrote the Bible, 
and deny its inspiration, is like the claim that 
Christ was a good man while he pretended to be 
what he was not. Either assumption is a sword 
which pierces through the opponents of in- 
spiration. The Book was certainly written in 
its human aspects by good men or bad men. 
If good men wrote it, claiming inspiration, it 
is true ; if bad men wrote it, we have the 
spectacle of the best book in the world written 
by the worst men, who at the same time de- 
nounce themselves most pitilessly. 

About 250 years before Christ the Old Tes- 
tament was translated from the Hebrew into 
Greek by seventy men, and for that reason the 
translation is called the Septuagint. This trans- 
lation enables us to trace the history of the book 
back through the ages, and silences the infidel 
who would claim that it is of recent origin. 



Our Bible 135 

There are, so far as we know, no original manu- 
scripts, and for a good reason. Jesus was careful 
to wipe away every vestige of his footprints on 
earth. The traveler as he goes through Pales- 
tine cannot be certain that he is standing just 
where Jesus once stood. He knew our tendency 
to worship places and things, and if an original 
manuscript in the handwriting of Paul or Peter 
were discovered, many would be inclined to 
worship it. It would be placed in holy shrines, 
and superstitious people would bow before it. 
God, therefore, in his wise providence, de- 
stroyed the original copy, but has left us more 
than 2,000 manuscripts copied by different 
hands in different ages and different places, 
and yet so nearly identical that not a single 
great fact or doctrine is affected by their differ- 
ences. 

As I looked upon the manuscript in the 
British Museum and compared it with other 
books, known to have been written hundreds 
of )^ears later, its pure whiteness and distinct 
lettering, compared with their faded and blurred 
appearance, impressed me with the conviction 
that the very angels of God must have watched 
over it and protected it. Amid political and 
social earthquakes, that have swallowed up na- 
tions and institutions, this manuscript has been 
preserved in its original purity. And as I 
gazed through the glass upon another manu- 



136 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

script in the Vatican at Rome, I had the same 
feehng. God surely has exercised peculiar 
care over his written revelation. 

As history, the Bible gives the record of 
events which can be found in no other book. 
It begins with creation and ends with the con- 
summation of all things. Its first words, " In 
the beginning, God," is an explanation of the 
material universe, and if you would know the 
beginning of the family, the Sabbath, of sin 
and crime, of the diversity of languages, of the 
rise and fall of ancient cities, you have but to 
read this wonderful library. And there are 
many things in the book which antedate the 
discoveries of modern science. Before the 
world ever heard of Copernicus and Newton, 
Isaiah wrote of " the circle of the heavens," 
and Job said, " He stretcheth out the North 
over empty space, and hangeth the world upon 
nothing." At least 3000 years before geology 
as a science was born, Moses gave the order of 
creation and development. The Book was not 
intended to teach science, but all of its scien- 
tific references I verily believe, if properly 
interpreted, are up to date, and will continue 
to be up to date if the world should last and 
grow in knowledge a thousand years longer. 

As poetry, the Bible has no rival. It is a 
supernatural book from beginning to end, and 
there can be no real poetry without a belief in 



Our Bible 137 

the supernatural. George Eliot wrote good 
enough novels, but reading her poetry is like 
eating dry bones. If you would feel the fire 
and mount upon the wings of poetry, you 
must read Longfellow, Whittier, Milton, Shake- 
speare, and other great poets who believed the 
Bible and echoed its noble sentiments. If you 
would hear music from master-minds you must 
listen to Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, Mendel- 
sohn, who drank their inspiration from Biblical 
fountains. 

The most fascinating part of the Bible, how- 
ever, is its prophecies. Hundreds of years 
before events took place they were foretold, 
and hundreds of years before men were born 
their names were given and their biographies 
carefully written. The place of Christ's birth, 
over which he could have no control, his char- 
acter and reception by the people, the manner 
of his death, the dividing of his garments, 
piercing of his body, the kind of companions 
he would have in death, all these and more are 
given with minute distinctness. How can we 
account for it ? By simply accepting the fact 
that the God who moved men to write the book 
could see ahead and tell what was coming to 
pass, and that he moved them to write what, 
as mere men, they could not possibly have 
known. 

Jesus, whose biography was thus pre-writteii 



138 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

by the prophets, is himself a prophet, and tells 
his disciples that certain things shall come to 
pass, while they could see no indications of 
their approach. He declared that Jerusalem 
should be destroyed, and you read in Josephus 
the fearful fulfilment of that prophecy. The 
prophet Isaiah wrote the doom of Babylon 
while she was still in her glory. He declared 
that it should never be inhabited, that no Ara- 
bian would ever pitch his tent there, that only 
the wild beasts of the forest should dwell in it, 
and this prophecy has been literally fulfilled. 
No traveler has ever yet been able by bribery 
to induce his Bedouin guide to spend a night 
among the ruins of Babylon. The prophet 
Nahum declared that Nineveh, then in her 
glory, should be destroyed by fire and water. 
The historic fact is that, after the swollen river 
had washed away a part of the wall, the be- 
siegers rushed through the breach and set the 
city on fire. Tyre, the Liverpool of ancient 
times, the queen of the seas, had her doom 
written for her while there were no signs of 
decay. God said, through Ezekiel, " I will also 
scrape her dust from her, and make her like the 
top of a rock ; " and again, " thou shalt be a 
place to spread nets upon." Such is the proph- 
ecy. Here is the history written by Volney, 
the infidel : " The whole village of Tyre con- 
tains only fifty or sixty poor famiHes, who live 



Our Bible 139 

obscurely upon the produce of their little 
ground and a trifling fishery." A traveler 
informs us that, while he was standing on the 
site of old Tyre, at the approach of evening he 
saw the fishermen pull their nets out of the 
water and spread them upon the bare rock to 
dry. He took out his Bible and read with 
deep emotion the prophecy of Ezekiel, whose 
fulfilment he had just seen. And Ezekiel 
prophesied of Egypt : " It shall be the basest 
of kingdoms." No one to-day denies the truth 
of that prophecy, and it was written when 
Egypt was at the climax of her glory — the 
England of her time. 

Every Jew among us is a living fulfilment of 
prophecy. More than one prophet declared 
that they should be scattered among the 
nations ; despised and persecuted, yet remain 
distinct. As we look into each other's faces 
we cannot tell whether our forefathers were 
English, German, Scotch, Irish, French, or 
Scandinavian, but I am quite sure that we can 
tell whether they were Jews. The Jew re- 
mains a Jew. In China he tried to become a 
Chinaman by adopting Chinese customs and 
wearing the pig-tail, but a Jew with a pig-tail 
is a Jew still. Millionaires, like Baron Hirsch, 
may advocate their mingling with the Gentiles, 
but all their persuasion only makes the average 
Jew more determined to remain distinct. 



140 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

In Hartford, Connecticut, I attended a Satur- 
day service in the Jewish synagogue. There 
were business men by the score who had 
left their banks, stores, and factories at the 
busiest hour of the day to worship on the Sab- 
bath of their forefathers. As I sat there and 
listened to the mumbling of the Rabbi, recit- 
ing the Hebrew Scriptures, I did not know 
what he said, but I did know that his presence 
and that of his congregation were the fulfil- 
ment of prophecy written more than three 
thousand years ago. Frederick the Great asked 
a learned man to give him in one sentence a 
good reason for his faith in Christianity, and 
his reply was, " The Jews, your majesty." 

But we need always to remember that the 
Bible is a very practical book and no one can 
add to its moral code. When the infidel speaks 
against it, ask him for some improvement upon 
the ethics of the Bible, and you will find him 
speechless, if he be an honest man. He may 
prate about the bad character of some whose 
biographies are given in the Bible, but he 
knows that the morals of the book condemn 
everything that is bad. A man and his wife were 
sitting in their quiet parlor, she busy with her 
magazine and he with curious interest reading 
a Bible which he had picked up. " Wife," said 
he, ** if this book is right, we are wrong." 
She dropped her magazine and gazed at him 



Our Bible 141 

curiously, and then resumed her reading. 
After a few minutes he said, a little more earn- 
estly, " Wife, if this book is right, we are lost," 
and she stopped to talk with him over that 
fact and then resumed her reading. After 
reading more carefully the precious volume for 
a half hour longer he looked up and said, with 
a tear in his voice, " Wife, if this book is right 
we may be saved." Read the Bible, friend, 
and it will tell you where you are wrong, why 
you are lost, and the blessed fact that you may 
be saved. It reveals in Jesus Christ the ful- 
ness of God's love and sympathy and mercy. 
It is the book that will comfort you when you 
are in sorrow, that will strengthen you in weak- 
ness, will guide you in perplexity, will cheer 
you in sadness, and when you come to die will 
shine upon the future and reveal to you the 
golden gates of the paradise of God. Throw 
the whole weight of your weakness and sin 
upon its promises and they are strong enough 
to hold you. 



X 

OUR CHURCHES 



" Clad in a robe of pure and spotless white, 
The youthful bride with timid steps comes forth 
To greet the hand to 7c>hich she plights her troth, 
Her soft eyes radiant with strange delight. 
The snowy veil which circles her around, 
Shades the sweet face from every gazer'' s eye. 
And thus enwrapt, she passes calmly by 
Nor casts a look but on the unconscious ground. 
So should the Church the bride elect of Heaven — 
Remembering whom she goeth forth to meet 
And with a truth that cannot brook deceit 
Holding the faith which u?ito her is given — 
Pass through this world which claims her for 

awhile 
Nor cast about her longing look nor smile.'''' 

Mrs. Neal. 



X 

OUR CHURCHES 

" He that hath aii ear, let him 
hear what the Spirit saith to the 
churches. ^^ Revelation 2 : ii. 

The church is the most important institution 
in the world. It was founded by our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who said : " On this rock I will 
build my church, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it." The gates of hell have 
prevailed against governments that were flour- 
ishing in the time of Christ. They are known 
now only by name, and we walk with sadness 
amid their ruins. But the church still stands, 
and will continue to stand, for it is God's build- 
ing. When the lodge or the club conflicts with 
the interests of the church, the true Christian 
will let the lodge or the club go, while he clings 
to the church of Christ. If the lodge meeting 
is on the night of the prayer-meeting, your 
place is in the prayer-meeting. And if the club 
supports a saloon you have no right to lend 
your influence or your presence to it. We 
should be set against whatever influence or 
insititution is the enemy of the church. 
10 145 



146 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

In the seven churches of Asia we have pic- 
tures of the churches of to-day, and it is our 
purpose to listen to the message of the Spirit 
which comes to us through them. 

I. There is the backslidden church at Eph- 
esus. It was orthodox in creed and deed. The 
Spirit says of them " thou canst not bear them 
which are evil : and thou hast tried them which 
say they are apostles, and are not, and hast 
found them liars." But it was orthodoxy on 
ice. Opposition to the evil was so intense that 
enthusiasm for the good was frozen. They 
were ecclesiastical warriors, they believed in 
trials for heresy, and pursued the heretic with 
relentless faithfulness. They hated the deeds 
of the Nicolaitanes, but they failed to love the 
Nicolaitanes themselves. " I have somewhat 
against thee," says the Spirit, " because thou 
hast left thy first love." It is well to hate 
wickedness and error, but when this hatred 
dries up our love for the wicked and the erring 
we have backslidden. God hates evil, but he 
is love. While we hate sin we should love 
sinners, and nothing in the church of Christ 
can take the place of love. 

II. The rich, poor church in Smyrna. " I 
know thy poverty, but thou art rich." It 
seems to have been a sort of down-town church, 
from which the wealthy members had moved 
to the suburbs. It was surrounded by organized 



Our Churches 147 

opposition. It was next door to " the syna- 
gogue of Satan." It walked in the furnace of 
martyrdom, and God gave to them what seemed 
to be a gloomy promise that the Devil should 
cast some of them into prison, and they should 
have tribulation even unto death. There is a 
poverty of wealth, and a wealth of poverty. 
This church had the wealth of poverty, poor 
in purse, but rich in grace. Its treasures were 
in heaven, and best of all the living Christ was 
with them. 

To the frightened sailors in the storm the 
conqueror of Gaul said, " Fear not, you carry 
Caesar." Wind and wave cared little for Cae- 
sar, but Jesus is the Master of the storm, and 
he says: "Fear none of those things which 
thou shalt suffer." Like garments made of 
asbestos, you are to be cleansed in the fire. 
There is many a church like this to-day, its 
members struggling with poverty and persecu- 
tion, while their characters are the vaults in 
which God keeps treasures that delight his 
heart. 

Ill, The compromising church at Pergamos. 
There were faithful martyrs among its mem- 
bers, men who were willing to give up their 
lives rather than deny the faith of Christ. At 
the same time there were among them those 
who " held the doctrine of Balaam, who taught 
Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the 



148 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

children of Lsrael, to eat things sacrificed to 
idols, and to commit fornication." The pastor 
of this church seemed to believe in a mixed 
membership of believers and unbelievers, gnos- 
tics and agnostics, good and bad. He had 
great respect for the character of the faithful, 
but he would not refuse to the Balaamites the 
privilege of believing and acting as they pleased. 
It was the paradise of the Nicolaitanes, who 
believed that the church should be married 
to the world. The tendency of the times to- 
day is to syndicate. We have syndicates 
of oil, leather, coal, almost everything under 
the sun. The parliament of religions at Chi- 
cago was an attempt to syndicate Christianity 
and paganism. There are some, it seems, who 
would syndicate earth, heaven and hell, and 
put God and Satan, angels and demons, good 
men and bad on the same footing. 

A good deacon of mine, in a former charge, 
declared that the Lord was binding things in 
bundles to burn them. Whether that be true 
or not, we are certain that light can have no 
fellowship v/ith darkness, nor health with 
disease, nor righteousness with sin, nor truth 
with falsehood. In the beginning God divided 
the light from the darkness, and he has been 
in this dividing business ever since. He will 
continue it until finally there will be only two 
worlds, one of light and one of darkness. The 



Our Churches 149 

church of Christ is a called-out, separated, 
consecrated people, " in the world but not of it," 
and when we drag down the church to the level 
of the world, instead of lifting the world to the 
level of the church, we are doing the work of 
Satan rather than of God. 

IV. The erring woman's church at Thyatira. 
It seems to have been ruled and ruined by a 
woman named Jezebel, who called herself a 
prophetess, teaching and practicing the most 
abominable things. Now woman is usually an 
angel of light or a demon of darkness. Pure 
water is good, but when it stagnates it fills the 
air with malaria and death. Woman is apt to 
be the best or the worst. She is nearly always 
aggressively good or bad. When she is good 
she is very good, but when she is bad, she is 
awfully bad. A good woman in the church is 
an angel of loving ministry ; her sympathy, 
her prayers, her testimony, her character, her 
patient persistence, her purity, are powers for 
God. But a proud, worldly, pleasure-seeking 
woman who wears her religion as she does her 
diamonds, for show, can do an immense amount 
of harm, God be praised forthe Phoebes who 
are the true servants of the church. Let her 
testify and pray and expound the Scriptures, 
filling the large sphere in the church to which 
God has called her, while she sits as queen in 
the home. 



150 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

The fact that the Scriptures do not provide 
for her ordination to the ministry does not 
contract her sphere, while it harmonizes with 
the fitness of things, but the Lord have mercy 
upon the church when Jezebel leads and rules. 
By her refined subtleties of sophistry the bad 
will appear good, error will look like truth, 
poison will taste like food, vice will resemble 
virtue, and imagination will seem to be solid 
reality. 

It is a noteworthy fact that the three great 
modern apostacies took their rise in the brain 
and influence of woman. Spiritualism came 
from the Fox sisters, and has grown more cor- 
rupt and corrupting. No spiritualist acknowl- 
edges the Divinity of Christ. Foolish table 
rappings are put on a par with the revelation 
of God. Whatever in it is not fraud, delusion, 
and deception seems to be the activity of 
demons whose mission of darkness to this world 
is to assist in the overthrow of the kingdom of 
God. 

" Christian Science " was founded by a 
woman. To say that it is neither Christian nor 
science is to speak the sober truth. Its claim 
that there is no reality of sin or Satan, and 
that therefore the atonement of Christ is not 
needed, is proof enough that it is not Christian. 
Its claim that material things are illusions, and 
the only reality is the Divine mind, is proof 



Our Churches 151 

enough again that it is not scientific. If you 
have the headache, in the first place you have 
no head, and in the next place there is, of 
course, no ache. Convince yourself that you 
are without a head and without an ache, and 
then you are well. I have read some of their 
books, and having studied it quite thoroughly 
the definition of Christian science which has 
formulated in my mind is this : It is the art 
of making sensible people feel and act as if 
they were deranged. Only a woman of culture, 
hailing from Boston, could have founded and 
made popular such a refinement of folly. 

Theosophy comes to us in modern guise from 
the brain of Madame Blavatsky, Its head- 
quarters is in Thibet, the one country the gospel 
has not yet reached. Its mahatmas come 
through the air from this pagan stronghold to 
teach the followers of their prophetess. One of 
them presents a handkerchief to Colonel Olcott 
of New York, with his initials in the corner. 
Another relieves the embarrassment of a picnic 
party by showing a cup and saucer hidden under 
the root of a tree which matches precisely with 
the other cups and saucers of the party. Men 
that seem to have sense about other things are 
duped by this foolery, while they rail against 
the miraculous in the Bible. It is really the 
revival of an effete paganism which has been 
dead and buried in its native land for hundreds 



152 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

of years. Only a woman could have unearthed 
its corpse, and with her gentle, delicate touch 
have painted it into the resemblance of life. 
God be praised for the good movements that 
have been led by women, assisted and encour- 
aged by their godly husbands, brothers, and 
friends, but the Devil only is to be thanked for 
these three great departures from the faith. 

V. The merely nominal church at Sardis. It 
had a name to live but was dead. Very active 
with many kinds of organization. There was 
doubtless scarcely any need for the theater in 
Sardis, for this church furnished theatrical per- 
formances for the people. It had big concerts, 
big fairs, big socials, and little prayer meetings. 
The services held for the salvation of lost 
souls were not popular. Evangelism was dead. 
There may have been a gorgeous ritual, artistic 
singing, rhetorical preaching, a splendid display, 
but no real life, simply a galvanized corpse — 
powdered and painted death. I leave you to 
say whether such churches exist to-day. 

VI. The faithful church at Philadelphia. The 
Spirit has no word of criticism. Before them 
is an open door, and they are entering it. With 
little strength they have depended upon God 
and obeyed His Word. The Synagogue of 
Satan has been compelled to acknowledge their 
supremacy. Their activity proceeds from spir- 
itual life within. Their meetings for praise and 



Our Churches 153 

prayer are full, the gospel is believed and 
honored by pulpit and pew. Their name ex- 
presses the fellowship which prevails. It is 
truly a church of brotherly love. Such a church 
is like the sun in the heavens, it cannot be hid. 

VII. The half-hearted church at Laodicea. 
They are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. God 
is disgusted with them. If there is nothing in 
Christianity, it deserves our opposition, and we 
should be hot against it. If there is anything 
in Christianity, there is everything, and we should 
be hot for it. There is no room for half-heart- 
edness, no neutral ground, no excuse for indiffer- 
ence. This church at Laodicea felt rich, plenty 
of money, good social position, fine organiza- 
tion. There was just one thing lacking, Christ 
was on the outside, " Behold, I stand at the 
door and knock." It was Christianity without 
Christ. 

I wish that I could give you the substance 
and spirit of a sermon I once heard a black man 
of the South preach on this text : " Behold I 
stand at the door and knock." Every sentence 
had broken grammar, but good religion in bad 
grammar is very much better than bad religion 
in good grammar, and we cared very little for 
his grammar while we listened to his fervent 
thought and earnest appeal. " There are two 
sides to this subject," he said, " first, the out- 
side, and, second, the inside. Firstly, Jesus is 



154 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

on the outside knocking, and you are on the 
inside holding the door, with your hand on the 
bolt. He knocks, you hold. There is coming 
a time when you will be on the outside and 
Jesus on the inside and while you knock, he 
will hold. Open the door, brethren, and let 
him in, that he may open the door then and 
let you in, for unless he enters your heart and 
sups with you here, you will not be prepared to 
enter his heaven and sup with him there." 

The cure for half-heartedness is the presence 
and fellowship of Jesus Christ. The church is 
his. Let him administer through the Holy 
Spirit its affairs. Let us put him in the place 
of honor, crowned, sceptered, and enthroned. 
By his presence every evil will be cast out, all 
disorder will be cured, and the glory of heaven 
will have begun. 



XI 

OUR DANGERS 



•' We are afflicted with the had citizenship of 
good men.^'' 

" A New York brewer said : The church people 
can drive us and we k?iow it. Our hope is in 
workifig after they grotv tired and cotitinuing to 
work three hundred and sixtyfive days in the 
year." 

" This new social ideal is little more fhafi a 
millennimn of Christian co7nfort. It needs to be 
elevated, illuminated, and glorified by Christ's 
social ideal. It is quite possible for Society to be 
at the same time ivell housed, well fed, 7vell clothed^ 
well educated, and well rotted.''' 

Strong. 



XI 

OUR DANGERS 

" Righteoiisjiess exalleth a nation, 
but sin is a reproach to any people.^'' 
Proverbs 14. :J4. 

Whatever in national life makes people 
better is an element of safety, and whatever 
makes people worse is an element of danger. 
Righteousness is light ; sin is shadow. As 
righteousness prevails, the nation is safe ; as 
sin prevails, the nation is in danger. 

The form of sin that threatens our very 
national existence is selfishness. Corporations 
that have in view simply money-getting, with- 
out regard to the rights of others, are a national 
menace, and cast a shadow upon our institu- 
tions. As with corporations which represent 
immense capital, so with organizations which 
represent large numbers of men. An organi- 
zation can be as selfish as a corporation. The 
organization which has in view simply its own 
advancement, without regard to the rights of 
others, is as great a danger as a corporation 
cursed with the same spirit of self-seeking. 

157 



158 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

The drink-habit is another danger that 
threatens destruction of body, mind, and home. 
In our fight for legal prohibition, and it has 
been none too strong, we have forgotten to 
instruct the young as to the evils of tippling. 
It is an alarming fact that the decanter is 
taking its place on the sideboard, and the 
wine glass on the table. The Washingtonian 
movement drove the demijohn from the home 
to the street corner, — a better place for it, but 
it threatens to return to the home and do its 
dastardly work among the women and children. 
Americans plead for liberty. Our forefathers 
died for it, and the liberty which we have 
gained is in danger of rotting into license. 

In the prison of Chillon there is a deep dark 
shaft into which prisoners once fell to their 
death. The keeper would take them out into 
the dark corridor, shout to them that they 
were free, and urge them to take their liberty. 
As they rushed for the outside, they fell into 
this shaft, and were crushed to pieces. So this 
watchword of personal liberty may lead many 
a one to fall into the shaft of drunkenness, 
where body, mind, and morals, are destroyed. 

But a greater danger even than the liquor 
habit is the organized liquor traffic. Carlos 
Martin in his book *' Christian Citizenship, " 
gives the following facts. There are engaged in 
the liquor traffic of this country 1,397,500, all 



Our Dangers 159 

males and voters. They run 200,000 saloons. 
Capital is directly invested to the amount of 
one thousand millions, and another one thou- 
sand millions indirectly interested. The liquor 
bill of the United States is one thousand 
millions. There goes up in tobacco smoke 
another six hundred millions. We spend for 
clothes and for meat, three hundred millions, 
each, for shoes tv,-o hundred millions, one 
hundred millions for schools, and the pitiful 
sum of five millions for foreign missions. This 
liquor traffic sends to the penitentiary 40,000 
men and women every year, and distributes 
through the country its annual quota of 
319,000 idiots. 

In the territor}- from Maine to Pennsylvania 
there is one liquor dealer for every 64 voters. 
From Delaware to Florida one liquor dealer 
for every 117 voters. From Ohio to Kansas 
one for every 70 voters. From Kentucky to 
Arkansas one to every 105 voters. From 
Montana to California one to ever>' 39 voters. 
So that we have an average for the United 
States of one liquor dealer to about everj' 80 
voters. And these liquor dealers are organized. 
In solid phalanx they move together. Tem- 
perance people are divided, but they are a 
unit. They stand ready to use their voice, 
their money, and their votes for the support of 
their traffic. And v.-hen we remember that 



i6o Lights and Shadows of American Life 

this great liquor interest is controlled to a large 
extent by foreign capital, while three-fourths of 
the brewers and maltsters in this country are of 
foreign birth, the danger to our institutions is 
increased. It has been truly said, and ought 
to be echoed over the land, unless this govern- 
ment destroys the liquor traffic, the liquor 
traffic will sooner or later destroy the govern- 
ment. 

Another danger is the importation of foreign 
ideas. I do not fear numbers from immigra- 
tion. This country is big enough to hold and 
support most of the world, and because a man 
is poor he ought not to be pushed back into 
the hold of a ship and returned to his grinding 
poverty and oppression. If he is honest and 
industrious, let him have a chance in this free 
air, and on these broad acres. Not numbers, 
but the ideas that they bring, endanger our 
institutions. 

First of all, I would ask a man who lands on 
Ellis Island : Do you believe in the American 
ballot box, in rule by the majority? If he 
says, No, I would tell him to go home and 
live among those that hold such views, where 
his company will be congenial. I would ask. 
Do you believe in the American schoolhouse? 
If he replies. No, I would advise him to return 
to the land of ignorance from which he came, 
and enjoy it the rest of his life. I would ask, 



Our Dangers i6i 

again : Do you believe in the American 
Sabbath? Here the Sabbath is not a holiday, 
but a holy day. It has the attractive features 
of the Sabbath given us by the Bible, and 
brought with the pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. 
On this day the working man has a right to 
rest, the Christian a right to worship ; the 
wheels of machinery stop, and our country 
pauses to think of God. If he says, I do not 
believe in such a Sabbath, but in a day of 
beer drinking, carousing, business and frolic, 
I should inform him that he can be better 
accommodated on the other side of the ocean. 
He is not needed here. He will be a discord 
amid the harmonies of our beloved land. 

Paris gives the fashion in dress to the world, 
and it is a sad fact that she is giving the fash- 
ion in immorality to many of our great cities. 
A leading editor lives in Paris and runs a per- 
sonal column in his New York paper, which 
makes it unfit to enter a decent home. I have 
heard of two families which have been wrecked 
through this nastiest piece of journalism. 

The black carriage on the streets of Paris, 
which Frances Willard denounced, has been 
threatening to come to America. It means 
over there that prostitution is legal, that wo^ 
men have the right to sell their virtue, and 
men the legal right to trade in their shame. 
If we would be safe as individuals, and as a 
II 



1 62 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

nation, we should erect a barrier as high as 
heaven against this flood of filth. 

Infidelity is another danger which Ameri- 
cans may well fear. This government is 
founded upon the truths taught by Christi- 
anity. The pilgrims landed on their knees. A 
republican democracy was organized after the 
manner of the first Congregational Church 
founded at Plymouth and Salem. Take Bible 
principles out of our institutions, and you have 
left a carcass or a skeleton. Lifidelity, by re- 
jecting the authority of God's law, weakens 
respect for all law. Go to a meeting of the 
wide-mouthed anarchists who fume out their 
sulphurous exhalations against marriage, the 
state, the church, the Sabbath, and everything 
which we deem holy, and you will find that 
every man of them is an infidel. 

A few years ago the champion infidel of 
this country headed a movement of the smut- 
dealers in favor of repealing what is known as 
the Comstock laws against sending obscene lit- 
erature and pictures through the United States 
mails. He lent his influence and eloquence, so 
far as he could, to the opening of the gates 
which would let this flood of moral filth into 
the homes and schools of our land. The 
enemy to be feared more than the guns of 
foreign nations is the spirit that rejects the 
Bible, ridicules the church, scorns to worship, 



Our Dangers 163 

recommends suicide, and gives free rein to all 
sorts of indulgence. 

Patriotism should prompt us to be Christians, 
for Christianity makes men righteous, and thus 
exalts our nation. Every man who loves his 
flag should love the Bible and the cross, for 
without the civilization which has come to us 
through the Bible and the cross of Christ, the 
flag would mean nothing. 

The only safeguard against the dangers we 
have mentioned, and the only remedy for the 
evils that exist, is the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, If that is preached, and believed, and 
lived we will have a righteous people : if that 
is denied and rejected and scorned, we can ex- 
pect nothing but anarchy and ruin. Valen- 
tine Burke, a notorious thief and burglar, with 
hardened features, enters a meeting where Mr. 
Moody is preaching. He hears of One mighty 
to save ; he repents of his sins, and turns to 
God. He confesses Jesus Christ as his Sav- 
iour, and becomes an honest man the rest of his 
life. The problem as to what should be done 
with criminals, in his case, is settled once for 
all. Let Jesus into a man's heart and there is 
no longer a criminal to deal with. 

A poor drunkard with delirium tremens is 
on his way down Water Street, to throw him- 
self into the East River. Dismissed fourteen 
times from the United States Navy for chronic 



164 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

alcoholism he has despaired, and thinks that 
the best thing he can do is to destroy himself. 
He sees a light above a transom, and hears 
floating through the light the words : 

" There is a fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins, 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
Lose all their guilty stains." 

He halted, and said to himself : " These are 
the words my mother used to sing to me when 
a boy. I Avill go in and listen a moment." 
Sitting down in his drunken stupor he heard 
redeemed men tell how they were saved by the 
grace of God. Jerry McAuley rose and invited 
those who wished to be saved from their sins 
to come forward and kneel at the bench. To 
use his own expressive language " I staggered 
up against the cross of Christ, the blood fell 
upon me, and washed my soul whiter than 
snow." From that day to this, and it has been 
over five years, this man, now a preacher of the 
gospel, has been working for the uplifting of 
his fallen brother. The problem of drunken- 
ness, you see, is settled. Let Christ into the 
soul, and he will cither destroy the appetite, or 
give strength to overcome. 

On the title-page of a little book written by 
Mrs. Whittemorc of the Door- of Hope, New 
York, are two faces, one of them wrinkled, sour 



Our Dangers 165 

and hard, the other with an expression of 
ineffable sweetness, gentleness and purity. 
These faces belong to the same person, yet 
not the same, and the photographs were taken 
only one year apart. " Blue Bird," the denizen 
of the slums in New York, comes to this Door 
of Hope in her degraded condition, hears of 
Jesus, trusts him, loves him, begins to tell others 
about him, and before she died was a model of 
virtue, an enthusiastic worker for the uplifting 
of her fallen sisters. So here the problem of 
prostitution is settled. Take Christ into the 
heart of a man or woman, and a pure life will be 
the result. 

But, after all, the whole matter rests with 
the individual. Men cannot be saved by whole- 
sale. God became man in the person of Jesus 
Christ, and as a man he pleads with us. ** Son, 
give me thy heart." We may form our social- 
istic schemes, but they will not work without 
a righteous people. Laws for the government 
of sheep cannot be applied to wolves and tigers. 
The tiger and the wolf must be transformed in- 
to the sheep, and then the socialistic economy 
meant for sheep will work well. Every man 
must open his heart, and let Christ come in and 
reign. In the picture of Holman Hunt, which 
represents Jesus standing at the door and 
knocking, you will notice there is no latch on 
the outside, no knob by which Christ can enter. 



i66 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

The latch and the key are on the inside. The 
lesson taught is practical and pointed. Even 
God himself will not break down the door, we 
must lift the latch of our will, and let him in, 
if we would have him to occupy our heart 
house. Lift the latch, and the entrance of 
Jesus will be the entrance of light and life. 



XII 

OUR WOMEN 



" To be man's tender mate was woman horn — 
Andy in obeying nature, she best serves 
The purposes of Heaven." 

Schiller, 

" The drying up a single tear has more 
Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore." 

Byroji. 

" Nature made thee 
To temper man ; we had been brutes without thee." 

Otway. 



XII 

OUR WOMEN 

" Your sons and your daughters 
shall prophesy." Acts 2 : 17. 

" The head of every man is Christ; 
a?td the head of the woman is the 
man." i Corinthians 11 :j. 

'■^ I permit not a womaft to teach, 
nor to have dominion over a man." 
I Timothy 2 : 12. 

" Let the women keep silence in the 
churches ; for it is not permitted unto 
them to speak." i Corinthians 14 :J4. 
" And coming up at that very hour 
she gave thanks unto God, and spake 
of hitn to all theni that tvere looking 
for the redemption of ferusalem" 
Luke 2 :j8. 

" These all with one accord con- 
tinued stedfastly in prayer, with the 
women, * * * and they were all 
filled with the Holy Spirit, and 
began to speak with other tongues, 
as the Spirit gave them utterance." 
Acts 1 : 14 and 2 : 4. 

The words of the prophet Joel quoted by 

Peter at Pentecost " Your sons and daughters 

169 



I/O Lights and Shadows of American Life 

shall prophesy," are the emancipation procla- 
mation for women. It is her charter of liberty. 
Woman in her proper place is always a light ; 
out of place she is a shadow. The impor- 
tant question, therefore, is what is her proper 
place ? 

Certainly she is in place as a wife in the home. 
Marriage is the normal state. For certain rea- 
sons one may remain unmarried. In the emer- 
gencies of his time Paul advised it, but it is 
not good that man or woman should be alone. 
God made her a helpmeet for man, and as such 
she should ever remain. In the home man is 
the head, and the wife is the helper. In i Cor- 
inthians 11:3 we read : " The head of every 
man is Christ, and the head of the woman is 
the man, and the head of Christ is God." The 
wife bears the relation to the husband that the 
church bears to Christ, and as Christ bears to 
God. Four or five times Paul exhorts the 
wives to be in subjection to their own husbands, 
and he tells husbands to " love their wives as 
Christ loved the church and gave himself for 
it." This subjection in point of authority does 
not imply inferiority. The home must have a 
head, and it is appropriate that man should be 
that head. God does not believe in two-headed 
monsters ; they are freaks, and he does not be- 
lieve in two sources of authority. The hus- 
band is to give " honor unto the wife as unto the 



Our Women 171 

weaker vessel," and they are to subject them- 
selves one to another in the love of God," but 
in matters of authority the man is the normal 
head of the home. The law said to the wife, 
" thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he 
shall rule over thee." And Paul said, " I suffer 
not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority 
over the man." This may not be palatable to 
some modern thinkers, but it is the teaching of 
God's word, and for one I believe that God 
knows more than even modern thinkers. Paul 
at least intimates that woman fell in Eden be- 
cause she did not observe this law. " The 
woman being deceived was in the transgres- 
sion," and she led the man astray because she 
acted independently of him. 

Woman is apt to go right by intuition and 
wrong by impulse. Man is apt to go right by 
reason. If Eve, recognizing the headship of 
Adam, had consulted with him, his reason 
might have saved her impulse from the fall and 
all its direful consequences, and from that day 
to this, when the wife proclaims independence 
of her husband, she is apt to go wrong. Her 
intuition needs his reason, and his reason needs 
her intuition. The one is mentally and morally 
incomplete without the other. The husband 
should make great sacrifices for his wife. " A 
man shall leave his father and his mother and 
shall cleave unto his wife," but he should never 



1/2 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

sacrifice the position of headship. Charles 
Wesley gives us the right relation of husband 
and wife in the words : 

" Not from his head was woman took. 
As made her husband to overlook, 
Not from his feet as one designed, 
The footstool of the stronger kind, 
But fashioned for himself a bride, 
An equal taken from his side, 
Her place intended to maintain. 
The mate and glory of the man. 
To rest as still beneath his arm, 
Protected by her lord from harm, 
And never from his heart removed, 
And only less than God beloved." 

From this you see that woman is the heart, 
while man is the head. The heart is not in- 
ferior to the head, it is just as important a part 
of the body. Nevertheless the heart is not to 
be the head, and if the heart by any abnormal 
power should get out of its place and get into 
the position of the head, while the head is 
pushed into the place of the heart, the result 
would be a monster. And so when woman, 
the heart and helper, would displace man from 
his headship, she is striving to make a social 
monstrosity. 

But some one asks, What if the husband be 
a blockhead and too weak to rule? Well, 
when the head of the body is diseased, the 
hands and the other members must get along 



Our Women 173 

the best they can, but it is a failure ; it is not 
normal. 

As in the home, so in the church, woman's 
proper place, whether married or unmarried, is 
as a helpmeet to man. The headship is in him ! 
the helpship is in her. She can pray and pro- 
phesy, but both the praying and the prophesy- 
ing must be done in such away as to recognize 
the headship of man. Paul urged the Christian 
women at Corinth to pray and prophesy with 
their heads covered. He evidently referred 
to the smaller meeting in which only Christians 
were apt to be present. For a Grecian woman 
to appear in public with uncovered head was a 
badge of bad character. The head of the 
woman was sometimes shaven as a punishment 
for nameless sins, and Paul insists that her ap- 
pearing even in a small assembly with her 
head uncovered was about equal to her being 
shorn. It was a shame. In the Grecian city 
the wives and sisters who rushed out of their 
homes to meet their husbands and brothers on 
their return from battle were disgraced by the 
act, and it was proclaimed as a shame to the 
city where they lived. 

In Syria to-day some women would die 
rather than allow a physician to see their faces, 
and among the Greeks it was a shame for a 
woman to let her voice be heard in the public 
assembly. Only those like Aspasia, the infa- 



1/4 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

mous mistress of Pericles, ever appeared as 
public speakers or singers. This act caused 
Paul to write to the Corinthian Church, " Let 
your women keep silence in the churches : for 
it is not permitted unto them to speak ; but to 
be under obedience, as also saith the law. And 
if they will learn anything let them ask their 
husbands at home : for it is a shame for women 
to speak in the church." This evidently does 
not refer to the business meeting, for the con- 
text shows that it was a meeting for worship 
and instruction. And to draw a distinction 
between the prayer-meeting and the public 
assembly, contending that the woman must 
keep silence in the prayer-meeting, while she 
is permitted to speak in the public assembly, 
is ludicrously wide of the mark. This 14th 
chapter of ist Corinthians describes the kind 
of meeting which the early Christians held. 
One man never did all the preaching. They 
came together, " one with a psalm, a doctrine, 
a tongue, a revelation, or an interpretation." 
It describes the most public sort of meeting, 
when believers and unbelievers were expected 
to be present. In such a meeting as this the 
woman must not only be veiled, but she must 
not be heard, for the moment she speaks she 
is branded as infamous. It is better that her 
reputation for virtue and obedience should be 
preserved than that she should prophesy, be- 



Our Women 175 

cause her testimony would be worse than neg- 
atived by the bad reputation which she would 
make by speaking. Paul covers the whole 
subject when he says in the last verse : " Let 
all things be done decently." 

Mr. Love, in his little book entitled " St. 
Paul and Woman," has given us the true inter- 
pretation : The principle is always the same 
while customs change. The principle is that 
woman must maintain her modesty, her virtue, 
and if married, her loyal subjection to her hus- 
band. When custom sets aside either of these, 
let the custom be sacrificed. Take another ex- 
ample. The command is " Be courteous," and 
a Christian ought to be polite everywhere. If, 
however, he goes to China, he will find that 
when a man wishes to be cordial with another, 
instead of shaking his hand he shakes his own 
hand. When a pupil in school desires to be 
respectful to the teacher, instead of facing the 
teacher as he would in America, he turns his 
face to the wall with his back to the teacher. 
In this country you take off your hat in the 
presence of ladies to show your respect. In 
the Orient you would be expected to put on 
your hat. In this country when a man of em- 
inence enters the room you rise to honor him ; 
in the Orient you would sit down, and if he 
be a high official, his subjects would be expected 
to ;prostrate themselves. Here we show re- 



I ']6 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

spect to ladies by allowing them to enter be- 
fore us. In the Orient you show the same 
respect by entering before them. Now, if I 
were to go to China and should meet Li 
Hung Chang, I should shake my own hand, 
if I wished to show him respect. And if I 
were to send my children to a Chinese school, 
I should insist on their standing with their 
faces to the wall while reciting their lessons, 
and I would certainly keep on my hat as a 
sign of respect in the presence of dignitaries. 
Not a particle of principle would I sacrifice, 
while changing the outward custom. 

So with feet-washing. Christ washed his 
disciples' feet, and urged them to do the same. 
He meant to teach a lesson of deep humility 
and humble service. But when a friend on a 
dusty day comes to my house in Brooklyn, I 
never suggest to him that I would like to wash 
his feet. That would be an insult rather than 
a sign of respect. I might, however, suggest 
that I would black his boots, or do him a ser- 
vice however menial as a token of my esteem. 
The principle remains, while the custom 
changes. And if there be a place on earth 
to-day where the speaking or singing of a 
woman in public would mark her as bad, and 
disloyal to her husband, let her remain silent. 
It would be a shame for her to speak. Better 
not even ask questions in public meetings, 



Our Women 177 

asking her husband or guardian at home, 
rather than disgrace the cause which she loves. 

Among the Jews the case was very different. 
Women went unveiled. Certainly Hannah 
was not veiled in the Temple, for Eli saw her 
lips moving. Anna, after she had seen the 
infant Saviour in the Temple, went out and 
" spake of him to all that looked for redemp- 
tion in Jerusalem." The woman may have 
worn some sort of covering over the head as a 
badge of loyal subjection to her husband, but 
the oriental veil covering all the head and 
obstructing speech was not common. 

On the day of Pentecost the prophecy of 

the text was certainly fulfilled. We are told 

in the first chapter of the Acts that " they 

were all with one accord in one place," and 

"they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and 

spake with other tongues, as the Spirit gave 

them utterance." All of them, men and women, 

were public preachers. Peter's short sermon 

was doubtless only the introduction to many 

sermons like it. In this revival man was the 

leader and woman the helper ; and all through 

the New Testament this relation continues. 

The four daughters of Philip were evangelists. 

Paul speaks of those " women which labored 

with me in the gospel." It was the women 

who first proclaimed the resurrection. Both 

Priscilla and Aquila were Paul's helpers in 
12 



178 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

Christ Jesus, and the woman seems to have 
had the pre-eminence. The woman of Sa- 
maria, after she had accepted Christ as a 
prophet, went into the town and told all the 
men, and as a result many were brought to 
Christ. 

In all church work, however, the principle 
of man's headship and woman's helpship should 
be strictly observed. Woman had no ofificial 
position in the tabernacle and temple services 
of the Old Testament, and she has no ofificial 
position in the New Testament church. She 
ought not to be ordained to the pastorate. 
When Paul said : " I suffer not a woman to 
teach," he evidently meant to teach in ofificial 
capacity, thus usurping authority over the man. 
Such is the meaning of the word translated 
teach. But as man's helper she can prophesy 
" speaking unto men to edification, and ex- 
hortation, and comfort." (l Corinthians, 14, 3.) 
Physically, she is not fitted to bear the con- 
tinual strain and burden of of^cial position. 
Let it be repeated that this does not imply 
inferiority on the part of woman. There may 
have been a thousand men in the Union Army 
superior to General Grant in many ways, but 
he was the head and they were the helpers. 
So there may be women in the church vastly 
superior to men, but that docs not change the 
order that man should be the official head, and 



Our Women 179 

woman in every way possible, public and pri- 
vate, the helper. 

As in the home and the church, so in the 
state, man should be the official head, and 
woman, married or unmarried, the helper. 
Deborah recognized the headship of Barak 
when she accepted his invitation to come and 
lead the army to battle. The plea that it is 
immodest for a woman to vote is simply sense- 
less. The one who makes that plea should 
never cross the Brooklyn Bridge at six o'clock 
in the evening. Walking in line up to the 
ballot box, and casting in a little piece of paper, 
is a very modest and womanly proceeding. My 
prejudices are all against woman suffrage ; my 
reasons are all for it. I feel against it, while I 
am compelled to think for it. The prejudice 
arises from the surroundings of early life, for I 
was raised where woman was indeed more 
highly esteemed than she is in other parts. 
The chivalry that almost worshiped her had 
not died out. Even to-day, in that section, a 
man in a street car is compelled by public sen- 
timent to rise and give his seat to a lady when 
she enters. For him to remain seated while 
she stands, would raise a protest of indignation 
from every other man in the car. This state 
of affairs has in it much to the advantage of 
woman. 

The new woman in striving to be a man, in 



i8o Lights and Shadows of American Life 

the estimation of men, forfeited her right to 
the consideration which they once gave to her. 
While she appealed to him for protection he 
would die for her, now that she has undertaken 
to protect herself he simply lets her do so with- 
out interference. By the ballot woman may be 
the true helpmeet of man and justice demands 
that she should have it. Taxation without rep- 
resentation made a revolution in this country 
over one hundred years ago, and yet we 
submit to this injustice in the treatment of 
women without a protest. " What makes you 
women meddle with politics? " asked Napoleon 
Bonaparte of Madame De Stael. " Ah, sire," 
she replied, " so long as you will hang us, we 
must ask the reason." " Who will take care of 
the children while you go to the polls ? " was 
asked of a Christian woman. " The same one 
who takes care of them," she replied, " when 
I go to pay my taxes." No one will deny that 
physically, mentally and morally, woman 
deserves the ballot. 

I am aware that 5,200 women in New Eng- 
land, many of them wives of eminent men, have 
formed an organization whose object is to pro- 
test against giving the ballot to women. They 
claim that the home is the unit of society, and 
is large enough as woman's sphere. They 
contend that woman, if she has the ballot, 
must be prepared to bear arms in defense of it. 



Our Women i8i 

They forget, however, that woman with the 
ballot may still be in the home sphere, for she 
can protect her home by voting. They forget 
again that as man's helper woman is able to 
defend the ballot. What he does with his 
musket on the battlefield, she does among the 
wounded in the hospital. Woman's work in 
helping is as important as man's in fighting. 
But in the state she should not be an official, 
any more than in the home or the church. As 
president, governor, judge, she would be out 
of place. Think of a woman policeman ! 

As in the home, the church, and the state, so 
in great world movements, man should be the 
head, while woman is the helper. When she 
declares independence of man, and exults in 
leadership, she is apt to make wreck. When 
she goes with man as his helpmeet, she is a 
great power in the world. 

Women who love the Bible and worship 
Jesus Christ cannot think with pleasure of 
Spiritualism, Christian Science, and Theosophy, 
three of the greatest apostacies of modern 
times led by women. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
has done great good, and yet if I had the 
power, I would to-day rub out the " W," and 
write in great golden letters, "Christian Temper- 
ance Union," opening the doors to men as well 
as women. There should be no great separate 



1 82 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

missionary societies among women. There 
maybe women's societies in churches provided 
they are willing to be under the guidance 
of the pastor and officers, but the moment 
they declare their independence they forfeit 
their right to live. 

Woman's sphere is just as large as man's. 
Wherever he goes into merchandise, law, 
medicine, journalism, preaching, indeed any- 
where, she may go, married or unmarried, 
without revolting against the official headship 
of man. But no husband should join an 
organization that refuses to admit his wife, and 
no wife should join a society that excludes her 
husband. No husband should enter a business 
into which his wife cannot conscientiously go 
as a helper. " What God hath joined together 
let not man put asunder." 

But what every man and woman on earth 
needs is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is in 
him all that is womanly and manly. We need 
no woman to introduce us to him, for he has a 
heart tenderer than a mother's. Take him 
into the home, the church, and the state. Let 
him be the Umpire as to what you should be, 
as to how you should work and vote, if you 
would be happy and successful for time and 
eternity. 



Xlll 
OUR DESTINY 



" I tremble for my country when I reflect that 
God is just. '^ 

Jefferson. 

" Whatever makes men good Christians juakes 
them good citizens.'^ 

Webster. 



XIII 

OUR DESTINY 

^'■Watchman, what of the night? 
The watchman said, The mor?ting 
Cometh and also the flight." Isaiah 
21 : II, 12. 

Our country is great in its area, its fertility, 
its mineral resources, its diversity of climate, 
and its political institutions. There are no 
autumn leaves like ours. Other countries may 
excel in ruins, but none can excel this country 
in the beauty of its scenery. An Englishman 
standing at the foot of Mount Vesuvius said to 
an American, " You have in your country no 
volcanoes like that." " True," replied the 
American, " but we have a little water-fall that 
can put out your volcano in three minutes." 
No water-falls, rivers, and lakes like ours. 
Our people ought to be better than any others 
in the world, for we ought to make some return 
of righteousness to God who has so abundantly 
blessed us. 

The practical question, however, is. What 

is to come of all this? What is to be our des- 

185 



186 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

tiny ? When the prophet Isaiah asked the 
watchman " What of the night ? " the watch- 
man said, " The morning cometh and also the 
night." In this chapter we propose to study 
the relation of the subjects so far discussed to 
the destiny of our nation, and, as we proceed, 
we shall try to see whether the morning cometh 
or the night. 

I. As to our homes. The home is the 
fountain of health or disease, of medicine or 
poison, of purity or impurity. Make the home 
pure, and the church will be pure. As is the 
home, so will be the nation. If marriage is 
holy, husband and wife and children happy, 
while the divorce-court is hated and avoided 
as a pestilence, it may be truly said, " The 
morning cometh." There is a bright future. 
If, on the other hand, the home is degraded, 
the marriage tie easily dissolved, if it is made 
a place of gambling, drinking, and carousing, 
children neglected, with no respect for parental 
authority, we may see written in letters of black 
cloud upon the future of our nation, " The 
night cometh." 

II. As to our bread-winners. The working 
people of this nation are prosperous. There 
are thousands out of work, to be sure, but even 
the men without work fare about as well as 
the workers in India, and other pagan countries. 
The laborers there are little better off than the 



Our Destiny 187 

paupers here. The destiny of the nation is, to 
a large extent, in the hands of the wage-earn- 
ers. Mr. Gladstone is reported to have said 
some time ago that he regarded the trades 
unions and the accompanying strikes as the 
greatest menace to our civilization. He may 
be right, but organizations of working men are 
not in themselves evils. They educate, they 
make men read and think, they cultivate a 
spirit of fraternity. The danger is that the 
organization may become a machine, a sort of 
juggernaut that shall crush out the rights of 
the individual. If labor organizations obey 
the golden rule, " Do unto others as you would 
have them do unto you," and live up to the 
law of Christ, " Love thy neighbor as thyself," 
truly " the morning cometh." If, on the other 
hand, the leaders of these masses of men shall 
try to force a new social order upon people 
who are not prepared for it, make laws for 
lambs which must govern tigers and lions, the 
night of anarchy and ruin will certainly come. 
III. As to our money-makers. The rich are 
certainly growing richer, though it is not true 
that the poor are growing poorer. Rich men 
who observe the golden rule, and are permeated 
by the sentiment of the Scripture, " Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor as thyself," are the real friends 
of the poor. Combinations of capital give us 
real public improvements. Without it no 



1 88 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

bridges could be erected, no railroads built, no 
steamship lines established. The outcry against 
such combinations of capital is as foolish as it 
is demagogic. Capitalists, like labor organiza- 
tions, may be a blessing or a curse to the 
country. If, like the devil-fish, they have only 
hands for getting and holding, with no hands 
for giving, they are a curse. If they make 
money just for the sake of acquiring, and with 
no unselfish philanthropic purpose, if they 
oppress the laborer in his wages, and esteem 
money above man, building up themselves 
upon the wreck of others, they will do much 
toward bringing about a national night of 
adversity. If laborer and capitalist respect the 
rights of each other, prizing men above 
machines or money, uniting against their com- 
mon foe the anarchist, and joining hands in 
every attempt to improve the condition of 
the people, then " the morning cometh," pro- 
phetic of the noonday. 

IV. As to our boys and girls. The enemy 
of the school-house is the enemy of this 
republic. We hear much about manhood suf- 
frage, and I believe in it, but every human be- 
ing has not manhood. Ignorance, either black 
or white, has no right to the ballot-box. No 
man should vote who cannot read the Con- 
stitution, and inform himself as to the prin- 
ciples of our government. He should be made 



Our Destiny 189 

to wait until he learns to read before he ven- 
tures to assist in governing intelligent people. 
But education of the head is not sufficient. 
Universities can breed rascals. Their knowl- 
edge enables them to make dynamite and 
form conspiracies against good order. Read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic will not transform 
their character. There must be an education 
of the heart. A ragged boy from the slums, 
who attended the public school in a certain 
place, was asked, if he knew it was wrong to 
steal. He replied, "No." "Is it wrong to 
lie?" "No." "Well, then," continued the 
questioner, " what do they teach you at 
school ? " " Sums, sir," was the reply. It is 
well to teach sums, but with that teaching 
should go the moral instruction which is the 
foundation of our government. Thieves, liars, 
and rakes with the ballot box at their com- 
mand will bring a night of national gloom. 
To save the children is not only Christian but 
patriotic. To transform one bad boy into a 
good man is splendid service to one's country. 
While " Chinese " Gordon was interested in 
many important movements, political and social, 
he kept hanging on the wall of his room a map 
covered with pins. Every day standing before 
this map he would move the pins. A friend 
asked him what that meant ? He replied that 
each pin designated the place where one of his 



190 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

rescued boys was, some of them on land, others 
at sea, but he tried to follow each one with his 
prayers. More important than building up 
a great organization may be the salvation of 
some one ragged boy or girl. You may be 
saving a future Luther or Lincoln. The sal- 
vation of our boys and girls means the dawn 
of the morning. Their degradation means the 
coming of the night. 

V. As to our amusements. It will be a dark 
day when we become a pleasure-seeking na- 
tion. Rome went down in that gulf. The 
taste of the people, given up to amusing them- 
selves, became so morbid that they demanded 
in the arena not acting but reality. No make- 
believe murder would satisfy them ; it must be 
real blood and a real victim. The emperors 
pandered to this depraved taste by filling the 
circle of the Coliseum with wild beasts. But 
the blood of animals did not appease the de- 
mand. There must be the real human gladi- 
ator, and the crowd gloated upon the scene 
when Christians were torn to pieces by lions 
and tigers. This tendency needs always to be 
guarded against. Those who amuse the peo- 
ple for pay will go just as far as decent public 
sentiment will permit. The theater in its spec- 
tacular obscenity, its pandering to the worst 
passions, is a corruptor of public morals. The 
need of the day is a revival of genuine Puri- 



Our Destiny 191 

tanism without its Puritanicalism. The Puri- 
tans beheved in pleasure that exhilarates and 
makes healthy and beautiful. They objected 
to the pleasures that debase and defile. In 
this they were right, and we need to emulate 
their virtues. As this nation shall become, if it 
ever does, a pleasure-seeking people, revelling 
in scenes of indecency and cruelty, the night 
of moral decrepitude will gather upon us. But 
if our amusements are rational and moral, un- 
bending the strain of work without breaking 
the stamina of character, they will add to the 
strength of our people, and hasten the dawn of 
the morning. 

VI. As to our Sabbath. Israel as a nation 
was destroyed because she desecrated the Sab- 
bath. Sabbath desecration is becoming a 
national sin, and we need to remember that in 
the 25th chapter of Matthew, all nations are 
called before God for judgment. " The wicked 
shall be turned into hell and all the nations 
that forget God." Sabbath desecration brings 
to the individual its train of physical, mental 
and moral evils, and so to the nation. If God's 
day is remembered and honored, we will keep 
our faces toward the sunrise. If it is forgotten 
and destroyed, we shall march toward the sun- 
set of departing glory. 

VII. As to our politics. If the nation is dom- 
inated by politicians who care only for success 



192 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

and spoils, buying votes and corrupting legis- 
lators, our destiny will be as dark as midnight. 

If, on the other hand, we are led by states- 
men who incarnate principles of righteousness, 
placing the good of the whole country above 
partisan victory, we shall continue to be what 
Bartholdi's statue proclaims, " Liberty enlight- 
ening the world." Through us to the op- 
pressed of all nations "the morning cometh." 

Vin. As to our cities. The city is to be the 
salvation or the damnation of our civilization. 
It is the heart that carries out the blood, bad 
or good, to all the surrounding country. The 
city saved means the nation saved. If our 
cities shall be ruled by men of character, the 
masses evangelized, the atmosphere filled with 
Christian thought, and its activities dominated 
by Christian principles, " the morning cometh." 
But if our cities are to be ruled by spoilsmen 
and political thugs, the masses demonized 
by drink, the atmosphere malodorous with in- 
fidelity, truly " the night cometh." 

IX. As to our Bible. The Bible is the foun- 
dation of this republic, and the man who writes 
or talks against it is the enemy of his country. 
As the Bible is read, believed, and lived, repub- 
lican institutions which are founded upon the 
virtue of the people will flourish. As it is 
neglected and rejected, tyranny will prevail. 
The Bible is the promoter of civil and religipus 



Our Destiny 193 

liberty. When Alexander the Great laid siege 
to a city, he hung up a great lantern which 
was to burn day and night. As long as that 
lantern burned, the city might surrender, and 
the lives of the people would be spared, 
but as soon as the lantern went out, there 
should be war to the knife, not one should es- 
cape alive. The Bible is the lantern which 
God has hung out from the heavens. While it 
gives light there is life and safety ; when it 
goes out there is darkness and death. The 
attempt to put it out is high treason. The 
Bible is being read in this country as never 
before. It is the book of the common people, 
and for that reason " the morning cometh." 
The old Book can never be destroyed. In 1793 
a red Republican in France said to a Christian, 
" We are going to tear down your churches and 
wipe out everything that reminds the people 
of your God." " Pull down the stars, then," 
was the reply. The stars of truth that shine 
in the firmament of God's revelation can 
never be pulled down by the hands of in- 
fidelity. 

X. As to our churches. The real church 
of Christ was never better than it is to-day. 
There is a nominal outward church, made up 
of mere professors and hypocrites, some of 
whom attend church, while they support in- 
fidel papers and give help to the enemies of 
13 



194 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

Christianity. Now and then one of them dies, 
leaving in his will the record of his hypocrisy. 
But in spite of this the church of Jesus is 
marching on to victory. God is gathering out 
of the world his own. If the church shall take 
Christ to the people, and hold before them a 
high standard of righteousness and spirituality, 
" the morning cometh." But if, on the other 
hand, the church goes down to the level of sin 
and selfishness that prevails, she will lose her 
power and bring on the night. A holy, sepa- 
rated, consecrated Christly church is to be the 
salvation of the nation, 

XL As to our dangers. I am not pessi- 
mistic by nature or grace. I delight in keep- 
ing my face toward the East. To every one 
of us Christ is the morning star. And yet we 
must not turn away our eyes from facts. 
There are dangers which threaten, and they 
may be averted. In the window of a Salvation 
Army barrack is the picture of a poor convict 
with two angels standing above him. One 
angel is " Love," the other " Hope." They 
are both seeking to gain his attention, and they 
are there to uplift and protect him. The man 
who believes in the love of God may always 
hope, and if God, by the manifestation of his 
love in Christ Jesus, can only gain our atten- 
tion, and draw us to himself by the magnetism 
of his sacrifice on Calvary, our hearts will be 



Our Destiny ig5 

renewed, and the future made aglow with the 
dawn of day. 

XII. As to our women. If wifehood and 
motherhood are held sacred, woman in the 
home as the helpmeet of man ; if Christian 
women shall " prophesy " in the church, pro- 
claiming to the world what Jesus Christ has 
done for her, while she leaves to man the bur- 
dens of of^cial position ; if wifehood, mother- 
hood, and sisterhood shall be allowed to speak 
through the ballot for the election of righteous 
men and the enactment of righteous laws, 
while women enter every sphere of industrial 
activity open to men, and receive the same 
remuneration for the same quality and quantity 
of work, " the morning cometh." 

But if loose views of marriage, and easy 
divorces shall degrade wifehood and destroy 
the home ; if woman shall neglect to prophesy 
in her rush for official position in church and 
state, there will be the confusion and curse 
which always follows disobedience to God's re- 
vealed will, and " the night cometh." 

If what has been said in the foregoing chap- 
ters fails to reach the individual, and attract 
his attention to Jesus Christ I have failed in 
my purpose. The discussion of general prin- 
ciples is valuable only in so far as they reach 
the individual. 

My closing appeal is not to the crowd, to 



196 Lights and Shadows of American Life 

the city, to the state, or the nation, it is to 
YOU, the individual man, woman, or child. 
God saves not by wholesale. Each one must 
for himself come unto personal relation with 
God through Jesus Christ. By honoring the 
Son of God in our creed and lives, we do the 
best possible service to the church, the state, 
and the world. And, though I would not 
appeal to a selfish motive, the word of God 
abides, "Them that honor me, I will honor." 

When Professor Muller was in Berlin he re- 
ceived through Humboldt, the scientist, an in- 
vitation to dine with the Emperor Frederick 
William IV. The day before the dinner a 
young lieutenant approached Professor Muller, 
and laying his hand upon his shoulder said, 
" We advise you to leave the city within twenty- 
four hours." " By whose authority ? " asked 
the professor. " By the authority of the chief 
of police," replied the lieutenant. "Tell the 
chief," answered Professor Muller, " that I can- 
not leave within twenty-four hours, for I must 
dine with the Emperor to-morrow." That 
afternoon the Chief of Police called in person 
to apologize to Professor Muller, and asked him 
not to mention the conduct of the lieutenant 
to the Emperor, for it would ruin him. He 
explained that the police officials had noticed 
Professor Muller in company with some young 
students who were known to be enemies of 



Our Destiny 197 

the government and for that reason they had 
decided to ask him to leave the city, but when 
they learned that he was the friend of the 
Emperor all of them stood ready to serve him. 
Link yourself by faith with Jesus Christ, and 
every angel in heaven is your servant. Our 
association with Jesus is not only salvation, 
but honor, power, and glory here and hereafter. 



A Selection from 

Fleming H. Revell Company's 

Catalogue. 



New York : 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago : 63 Washington Street 
Toronto ; X54 Yonge Street 



By Rev. F. B. Meyer 



The Shepherd Psalm. Illustrated. Printed in two 

colors. i2mo, cloth, gilt top, boxed, Si. 25 ; full gilt, 

$i.SO. 

The Bells of Is. Echoes from my e.irly pastorates. 
With portrait. i2mo, cloth, 75c. 

Prayers for Heart and Home, Svo, flex, cloth, 75 c. 

Paul : a Servant of Jesus Christ. 1 2 mo, cloth, $1 .00. 

Old Testament Heroes. 8 vols., lamo, cloth, each, 

$1.00 ; the set, boxed, ?S.oo. 

Abraham. Elijah. Jeremiah. Toshua. 

David. Israel. Joseph. Moses. 

The Expository Series. lanio, cloth, each $1.00; 
the set, boxed, S4. 00. 

Tried by Fire. The Way Into the Holiest. 

Christ in Isc-iiah. The Lite and Lipht of Men. 

The Ctiristian Life Series. iSmo, cloth, e.ich, 30 c. 

The Shepherd Psalm Through Fire and Flood. 
Christian Living. The Glorious Lord. 

The Present Tenses Calvary to Pentecost. 
The Future Tenses Key \\ ords to the Inner Life. 

*♦* The first four also issued in flexible, decorated cloth, 
i6mo, each, jo c. ; the set, boxed, $2.00. 

Addresses, lamo, paper, each, 15c.; cloth, each, 
net, 30 c. 

Meet for the Master's L^se A Castaway 
The Secret of Guidance Light on Life's Duties 

Saved and Kept. Long lomo, cloth, 50c. 

Cheer for Life's Pilgrimage. Long lomo, cloth, 50 c. 

Peace, Perfect Peace. i8mo, cloth, 25 c. 

The Psalms. Notes and Re.adings. 1 8mo, cloth, (xjc. 

Envelope Series of Booklets. Packets Nos. i and 2, 
each containing 12 Tr.icts, assorted, net, 20c. 

Choice Extracts. 24mo, paper, each, 5 c. ; per doz. 
net, 35 c; i6mo, paper, 15 c. 



By Rev. Andrew Murray 

/ttfth^i^edy copyright edUkms, 

THE. SCHOOL OF PRAYER, svds, i2m«^. 

The Minstfy of Intefcesskto : A Plea for More 

With Christ in the School of Prayer : Thoughts 
•■-n Our Trainina; for '.he Ministry (if Inter cfissicn. 

THE WTTH CHRIST SERIES. ^^ vols., i6mo. 

Paper, each zjc. 

CUith, each 35c. : the set, M^erf. $5.<w, 

Vit^ Christ. Holy in Oirist. 

Afcicle in Christ. Th« ^<rit of Christ. 

Like Christ. The Master's Ind^welling. 

The New Life. Wrxds of God for Young Disciples 

^f Chr:st. ri5nir>, cloth, 50c 

The ChUdrza for Christ-. 1 2mo, cloth, f i .00. 
The True Vine. Meditations for a Month on John 

X7. z-i^,. Lr,r\g rotno. doth, 30c. 

Vaiitiflgf 00 Gcxi. Daily Messages for a Month. 

L/%na^ r'5mo doth, 50c. 

The Lord's Tabfe, Long i6mo, cloth, 50c 

The E>eepef Christiaa Dfe, An Aid to its Attain- 
ment. ;-.mo. doth. 5&C. 

Jesos Himself, r^mo, doth, 25c. 

Live Made Perfect. i%mo, cloth, i^c, 

Hamility. The Beauty of Holiness, i %no, doth, 30c 

Be Perfect. Meditations for a Month. iSmo, doth^ 30c. 

Let Us Dra-w Nigii I i %mo, doth, 30c. 

Why Do Yo« Not Believe? iSmo, doth, 30c 

Mooey: Thoughts for God's Stewards. iSmo, 

cloth, 25c. 
The Spiritaal Life, i2mo, cloth, 50c 

The Holiest of All. An exposition of the Epistle 

t-', the Hebrews, ivo. cloth, net $2.00. 

Envelope Series of Booklets, retracts. Per dozen, 
net,, ioc. ; per hundred, net $1.30 



By Rev, A. J. Gordon, D.D. 

The Ministry of the Spirit, introduction by Rev. 

F. B. Meyer, B.A. 121:10, cloth, gilt top $1.00 

i8mo, cloth, «<'/', 25c.; by post, ?/f^ 30 

How Christ Came to Church: The Pastor's Dream. 

A Spiritual Autobiojjraphy. With the life-story and the 
dream as interpreting the man, by Rev. A. T. Pierson, 

D.D. With portrait. 8vo, cloth, gilt top 75 

i8mo, cloth, «./, 25c. ; by post, net 30 

In Christ; or, the Believer's Union with his Lord. 

i2mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.00; paper, «f^ 35 

Pocket Edition, long i8mo, cloth i.oo 

Popular Edition, i2mo, cloth. «<•■/ 30 

Che.\p Edition, iSmo, cloth, itet^ 25c.; by post, net. .30 

The Holy Spirit in Missions. 12 mo, cloth, gilt 

top, $1.25; paper, «t/f 50 

Grace and Glory. Sermons for the Life that Now is 

and That which is to Come. i2mo, cloth, gilt top. . 1.50 
Paper, «(•/ f-i 

Ecce Venit? or, Behold, He Cometh. i2mo, clotii, 
gilt top, $1.25 ; paper, net jc 

The Rlinistry of Healing > or, Miracles of Curer in 
all ages. i2mo, cloth, gilt top, $1.25 ; paper, ««■,'.. . .50 

The Two-Fold Life; or, Christ's Work for Us, and 

Christ's Work in Us. i2mo, cloth, gilt top .. '. 5 

Paper, net 50 

Yet Speaking. Unpublished Addresses. i6m'~. 

cloth 50 

Risen w^ith Christ; or, the Resui.ection of »^niist 
and of the Believer. i6mo, boards .30 

The First Thing in the "World; or , the Primacy o. 

Faith. iCmo, decorated boards o 

Che.'\p Edition, «.V, IOC ; per doz., «< / 1 ,x) 

The Coronation Hymnal. 400 Hyi ms, witli MusL- 

13y Rev. Drs. A. J. Gordon and A. T. Pierson. 4to, haP- 

cloth, red edges, net^ 6oc.; cloth, red edges, net 75 

Twro editions: An edition for general use, and a Bap'-: : 
edition. Send for specimen pages. 



Aooniram Judson Gordon. A Biography. By iii 
son, E. B. Gordon, Illustrated. 8vo, cloth i.., 



n 310 fi8 











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